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HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE 



HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

1885-1911 



By G. p. GOOCH 



London 
WILLIAMS & NORGATE 



HENRY HOLT & Co., New York 
Canada : WM. BRIGGS, Toronto 
India : R. & T. WASHBOURNE, Ltd. 




HOME 

UNIVERSITY 

LIBRARY 

OF 

MODERN KNOWLEDGE 

Editors : 

HERBERT FISHER, M.A., F.B.A. 

Prof, GILBEPvT MURRAY, D.LlTT^ 
LL.D., F.B.A. 

Prof. J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A. 

PROF. WILLIAM T. BREWSTER, M.A. 
(Columbia University, U.S.A.) 



NEW YORK 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 





HISTORY OF 
OUR TIME 

1885-1911 







GfprGc 



BY 



GOOCH, M.A. 



AUTHOR OF 

"ENGLISH DEMOCRATIC IDEAS IN THE 

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY," " ANNALS OF 

POLITICS AND CULTURE," ETC. 



LONDON 
WILLIAMS AND NORGATE I 



Da-zz 






V 



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©CLA^nl:. 872 



CONTENTS 



I The British Empire . * 

II The French Republic 

III The Laten South 

IV Germany and Austria-Hitngaey 
V Eastern Europe 

VI The Balance of Power . 

VII The Awakening op Asia . 

VIII The Partition of Africa 

IX The New World 

X World Problems 



PAGE 
7 

35 
58 
83 
109 
132 
155 
180 
206 
232 



HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

CHAPTER I 

THE BRITISH EMPIRE 

In June 1885 Gladstone's second Ministry 
was defeated on the Budget proposal to 
increase the taxation of liquor. It had 
inherited difficulties at home and abroad, 
and its career had been stormy and dis- 
appointing. There had been an inglorious 
war in South Africa, incessant conflict in 
Ireland, and dynamite outrages in London. 
The revolt of Arabi had been suppressed, 
but Khartoum had fallen and Gordon had 
perished. Moreover the Ministry had been 
weakened by resignations and torn by internal 
dissension. Lord Lansdowne and the Duke 
of Argyll had withdrawn on the attempt 
to settle the Irish land question, Forster 
on the release of Parnell from Kilmainham, 
Bright on the bombardment of Alexandria. 
An unceasing struggle had been carried on 
in the Cabinet between the Whigs and the 



8 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

Radicals, culminating in the " Unauthorised 
Programme " of Mr. Chamberlain. 

On Gladstone's resignation Salisbury formed 
his first Ministry ; but before the dissolu- 
tion took place in November, an important 
change in the political situation had occurred. 
The Crimes Act was dropped, and Carnarvon, 
the new Lord-Lieutenant, informed Parnell 
at a secret interview of his inclination towards 
Home Rule. For these reasons the Irish 
vote was cast for Conservative candidates 
throughout Great Britain. The result of the 
election was that the Conservatives and 
Nationalists combined exactly equalled the 
Liberals. Gladstone's election address had 
demanded an equitable settlement with 
Ireland, and had asked for a majority in- 
dependent of Irish votes. On failing to obtain 
it he offered to co-operate with Salisbury 
in an attempt to solve the problem on the 
lines of autonomy. The Conservative leader 
refused ; but Herbert Gladstone had already 
confided to a newspaper that his father 
was prepared to grant some form of Home 
Rule. Meanwhile Carnarvon had resigned, 
and on the meeting of Parliament the Queen's 
Speech foreshadowed the renewal of coercion. 
The Liberals and Nationalists combined to 
overthrow the Government on the Address, 
and Gladstone became Prime Minister for 
the third time. 



THE BRITISH EMPIRE 9 

The adoption of Home Rnle by the Liberal 
leader opened a new chapter in the history 
of the British Empire. Influential Liberals 
like Mr. Morley, Mr. Bryce, and Sir Charles 
Dilke had already avowed themselves Home 
Rulers; and Gladstone's conversion caused 
no surprise to his intimate friends and 
colleagues. He had lost what little faith in 
coercion he had ever possessed. Before 
his resignation he had contemplated an 
elective Central Council for Ireland on lines 
suggested by Mr. Chamberlain. Visiting his 
leader at Ha war den in September, Lord 
Derby found him " leaning towards Home 
Rule." In this state of mind he was pro- 
foundly impressed by the return of 86 Irish 
Home Rulers at the first election held on 
a democratic franchise. The vision of a 
reconciled Ireland gradually took possession 
of him, and to its realisation he devoted 
the evening of his life. 

The approaching split in the Liberal 
party was foreshadowed when the com- 
position of the Ministry was announced. 
The names of Hartington, Bright, Selborne, 
Derby, Northbrook, Sir Henry James and 
other old colleagues were missing, while 
Mr. Chamberlain and Sir George Trevelyan, 
in accepting office, only pledged themselves 
to inquiry. The Bill was framed by the 
Prime Minister with the assistance of Mr. 



10 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

Morley, the new Chief Secretary, and Lord 
Spencer, whose long experience as Lord- 
Lieutenant was of the greatest service. 
It proposed the creation of two Houses or 
Orders, with power over all purely Irish 
questions. The Prime Minister added that 
a great measure of land purchase would 
accompany the scheme. The Bill was re- 
ceived with a storm of criticism, the hottest 
fire being concentrated on the exclusion 
of the Irish members from Westminster. 
Mr. Chamberlain and Sir George Trevelyan 
had already resigned when the Bill was 
defeated on second reading by a majority 
of 80 with the aid of 93 dissentient Liberals. 
Parliament was dissolved, the Gladstonian 
Liberals were defeated, and the Coalition 
returned with a majority of 118. 

The adoption of Home Rule reduced 
the Liberal party to something like political 
impotence for twenty years. The change 
was too great to be accepted offhand even 
at the bidding of Gladstone. But the loss of 
one party was the gain of the other. After 
a short interval of uncertainty the dissentient 
Liberals threw in their lot with the Con- 
servatives, and built up a strong Unionist 
Coalition. The Whigs had been drifting 
away from their chief for some years, and 
the adoption of Home Rule merely completed 
their conversion. The creation of the 



THE BRITISH EMPIRE 11 

Unionist party may be said to mark the 
birth of the Imperialism which dominated 
British poHtics for twenty years. The 
foundation of the Imperial Federation League 
in 1884, under the auspices of Forster and Lord 
Rosebery, showed that the Colonial problem 
was occupying the thoughts of prominent 
Liberals ; but the Unionists now came 
forward not only as the guardians of the 
Union but as the special champions of Imperial 
expansion and defence. The gulf between 
the two historic parties deepened, and the 
Liberal party, relieved of the incubus of 
its Whig supporters, became more frankly 
democratic. 

On the fall of the short-lived Gladstone 
Ministry, Salisbury offered to serve under 
Hartington. The proposal was declined, 
though the Whig leader promised independent 
support. A purely Conservative Government 
was therefore formed with Lord Randolph 
Churchill, the champion of Tory democracy 
and sometime leader of the Fourth Party, 
as Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader 
of the House. But at the end of the year 
Lord Randolph refused to accept the large 
estimates for the army and navy on which 
the Cabinet was bent. To his surprise 
his resignation was accepted. W. H. Smith 
became leader of the House, and Goschen 
Chancellor of the Exchequer. The new 



12 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

minister had refused to join the Gladstone 
Government in 1880 owing to his opposition 
to the extension of the franchise, and Bright 
had predicted that he would one day enter 
a Tory administration. At the same time 
an effort was made to unite the Liberal party 
at the Round Table Conference between 
Mr. Chamberlain and Sir George Trevelyan 
on one side, and Harcourt, Herschell and 
Mr. Morley on the other. The attempt 
failed, though Sir George shortly rejoined 
his friends. Its failure marks the definite 
incorporation of the main body of dissentient 
Liberals in the Unionist party. 

The most difficult, as well as the most 
urgent, problem confronting the Ministry 
was that of Ireland. Salisbury had declared 
that the sister isle needed twenty years 
of resolute government. The medicine was 
unflinchingly administered by the Chief 
Secretary, Mr. Balfour, who, in reply to the 
" Plan of Campaign," carried a drastic and 
permanent Crimes Bill in 1887 by the aid 
of the guillotine, now used for the first time 
in limiting debate. William O'Brien and 
other political offenders were treated like 
common criminals, and the bloodshed at 
Michelstown excited passionate controversy 
throughout Great Britain. But the situation, 
measured by police statistics, slowly im- 
proved, land purchase was hurried on, and 



THE BRITISH EMPIRE 18 

in 1891 the Congested Districts Board was 
created to assist the poverty-stricken coun- 
ties of the West. 

The main legislative achievements of the 
Salisbury Government were the creation 
of elective County and District Councils in 
1888, and the grant of Free Education in 
1891. Both reforms had been advocated 
by Mr. Chamberlain, and their passage was 
regarded as consideration for Liberal Unionist 
support. Nowhere was the advantage of 
the former measure more quickly felt than 
in London, where the Council attracted from 
the outset able and distinguished men. In 
1890 an important Housing Act was passed, 
and in 1891 facilities were provided for 
obtaining allotments. Finance was skilfully 
handled by Goschen. In 1888 the interest 
on the greater portion of the National Debt 
was reduced from 3 to 2| per cent., a further 
reduction to 2| per cent, to take place in 
1903. The conversion effected an immediate 
saving of 1| millions a year in interest. In 
the second place, the proceeds of certain taxes 
were assigned to the local authorities in place 
of grants in aid. The resources of the County 
Councils were increased in 1890 by the 
" Whisky Money " which Goschen had in- 
tended to devote to the extinction of licences* 
Abroad the sky was comparatively unclouded, 
and Salisbury confirmed his reputation as a 



14 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

skilful and peace-loving diplomatist. The 
celebration of the Jubilee in 1887 not only 
revealed to the world the affectionate rever- 
ence in which Queen Victoria was held, but 
also emphasised the moral unity of the 
Empire. None the less the Government 
deemed it necessary to strengthen the national 
defences. The Two Power standard was 
formulated, and in 1889 a large increase in 
the navy was begun. 

During the Parliament of 1886 strokes both 
of good and evil fortune befel the Unionist 
party. In April 1887 the Times published 
a facsimile letter of Parnell, expressing a 
partial approval of the Phoenix Park murders. 
The Irish leader instantly denied its authen- 
ticity. After a year's delay, the Govern- 
ment appointed a Commission of three Judges 
to investigate the history of the Nationalist 
movement, both in its political and its 
agrarian aspects. The letter was proved 
to have been forged by a needy adventurer 
named Pigott, who shot himself on ex 
posure. The Judges, whose Report was not 
ready till February 1890, found that the 
leaders of the Irish party were not collec- 
tively engaged in a conspiracy to secure the 
independence of Ireland, but that some of 
them supported separation and incited to 
intimidation though not to serious crime. 
Parnell had no sooner vindicated his character 



THE BRITISH EMPIRE 15 

than the poHtical world was convulsed by 
the news that he had for years been living 
with Mrs. O'Shea. The majority of the 
Irish members at once declared that he must 
for a time withdraw from the leadership of 
the party, and Gladstone publicly advised in 
the same sense. Parnell refused to resign and 
fought for his place, turning savagely on his old 
friends and allies, and killing himself by over- 
work in 1891 at the age of forty-five. The 
exposure of Parnell and the internecine conflict 
within the Nationalist party destroyed the 
chances of a Liberal triumph at the polls. 
The formulation of a programme by the 
National Liberal Federation at Newcastle 
in 1891, containing Home Rule, Disestablish- 
ment of the Church in Wales and Scotland, 
Local Option, abolition of plural voting, 
payment of members. Employers' Liability, 
and the establishment of Parish Councils, 
provoked the antagonism of powerful interests. 
The election of 1892 was a bitter dis- 
appointment to Gladstone, who only secured 
a majority of 40. The second Home Rule 
Bill differed from the first in proposing the 
retention of 80 members from Ireland, with 
power to vote only on matters in which their 
country was concerned. But the " in and 
out " proposal, borrowed from Croatia, broke 
down in debate, and it was determined to 
retain the members for all purposes. The 



16 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

Bill passed its third reading by a majority 
of 84, but was rejected by the House of 
Lords by 419 to 41. The Government then 
proceeded to pass a Parish Councils Bill, 
which completed the reform of local govern- 
ment begun in 1888. An Employers' 
Liability Bill was withdrawn, owing to the 
authorisation by the Peers of the principle 
of contracting out of the measure. The 
session of 1893 lasted through the winter, 
and early in 1894 Gladstone resigned the 
Premiership. His last speech in the House 
of Commons, where he had sat for sixty years, 
pointed the moral of the situation by de- 
claring that the issue of Lords and Commons 
had been raised, and must be settled in 
favour of the elected Chamber. The duties 
of a Prime Minister weighed heavily on a man 
of eighty-five, sight and hearing were affected, 
and Home Rule was blocked ; but the 
proximate cause of his resignation was his 
dislike of the large shipbuilding programme 
on which a majority of his colleagues insisted. 
Lord Rosebery, who had been Foreign 
Secretary in the third and fourth Gladstone 
Ministries, succeeded to the position to which 
Harcourt was widely considered to have a 
prior claim, and for which Gladstone believed 
Spencer the fittest candidate. Harcourt had 
to content himself with the leadership of the 
House ; but his disappointment was followed 



THE BRITISH EMPIRE 17 

by the greatest triumph of his career. The 
Budget of 1894 instituted graduated duties 
on real and personal property passing at 
death. The majority was small and the 
problem extraordinarily complicated ; but 
the measure was skilfully piloted through 
the House without the closure. Though 
attacked by the Opposition with extreme 
bitterness, the Death Duties were retained 
when the Unionists took office in the follow- 
ing year. The Budget of 1894 was the last 
as well as the greatest success of a divided 
and dispirited Government. A measure for 
the Disestablishment of the Church in Wales 
v/as introduced but not carried through the 
House, a Local Veto Bill had to be with- 
drawn, and a scheme to solve the urgent 
problem of the Irish evicted tenants was re- 
jected by the Lords. The Prime Minister 
complained bitterly of responsibility without 
power, and in June 1895 the Ministry resigned 
on a defeat in a thin House on the adequacy 
of the supply of cordite. 

At the ensuing election the Unionists 
secured a majority of 152, and Salisbury 
formed his third Administration, in which 
Hartington, who had become Duke of Devon- 
shire in 1891, Mr. Chamberlain, Lord Lans- 
downe. Sir Henry James, and other Liberal 
Unionists held important posts. During the 
campaign Mr. Chamberlain had expounded 



18 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

a policy of social reform, of which Old Age 
Pensions was the most popular item ; but 
though one surplus followed another no 
attempt was made to redeem the promise. 
On the other hand, it was mainly owing to 
his efforts that an Employers' Liability Bill, 
embodying the principle of contracting out, 
became law in 1897, and was extended to 
include' agricultural labourers in 1900. 
Relief was granted in 1896 to the agricultural 
interest by the remission of half the local 
rates, and in the following year an increased 
Treasury grant was made to denominational 
schools. In 1899 Borough Councils were 
established in London to supersede the 
Vestries. In Ireland popularly elected 
County Councils took the place of the Grand 
Juries in 1898, and in 1899 a Department of 
Agriculture and Technical Instruction was 
established on lines suggested by Sir Horace 
Plunkett, who became its first head. On 
the other hand, the Government paid no 
attention to the finding of a strong Royal 
Commission that Ireland was paying one- 
twelfth of the joint expenditure, whereas 
her proper contribution would be one- 
twentieth. 

The main attention of the Government 
and the country was devoted rather to 
external than to domestic affairs. The arrest- 
ing personality of Mr. Chamberlain attracted 



^ THE BRITISH EMPIRE 19 

attention to the work of the Colonial Office, 
and advantage was taken of the presence 
of the Colonial Premiers at the Diamond 
Jubilee in 1897 to hold an informal Con- 
ference to discuss methods of drawing the 
component parts of the Empire together. 
In 1900 the federal constitution drawn up 
by the Australian Colonies was accepted by 
the Home Government, which, however, 
insisted on the retention of the Privy Council 
as a Court of Appeal. Friendly relations 
with the United States were temporarily 
interrupted by a dispute in reference to the 
boundary of Venezuela. Great Britain was 
condemned to look on while the Sultan 
massacred his Armenian subjects by thou- 
sands, but assisted in the expulsion of Turkish 
troops from Crete. A formidable insurrection 
among the tribes on the North- West frontier 
of India led to a costly campaign in 1897. 
In the scramble for concessions in China 
Salisbury proved no match for the rough- 
handed diplomatists of Germany and Russia, 
and the lease of Wei-hai-Wei in 1898 failed 
to avert an abiding diminution of British 
prestige in the Far East. In another con- 
tinent the Government showed greater 
decision. In 1896 the Anglo-Egyptian army 
advanced to Dongola, and in 1898 the forces 
of the Khalifa were annihilated outside 
Omdurman. 



20 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

While the Empire was occupied with war 
and the rumours of war in every quarter of 
the world, dark clouds were gathering in 
South Africa. On the fkst day of January 

1896 Dr. Jameson, the Administrator of 
Rhodesia, entered the Transvaal with 600 
men, but was quickly captured by a superior 
force of Boers. The plan, though not the 
exact day of the Raid, was known to Rhodes, 
and it was widely believed that it was also 
known to Mr. Chamberlain. A Committee 
of the House of Commons was appointed in 

1897 to probe the conspiracy ; but as Rhodes' 
solicitor, Mr. Hawksley, refused to produce 
the telegrams in his possession and the 
Committee neglected to insist on their pro- 
duction, as Rutherfoord Harris, the Secretary 
of the South Africa Company, was nowhere 
to be found, and as no punishment was 
inflicted on Rhodes, the report merely 
increased the suspicion of the Transvaal 
Boers that their independence was in danger. 
In the same year Sir Alfred Milner was 
appointed High Commissioner, and immedi- 
ately began to champion the claims of the 
Outlanders with zeal equal to their own. 
On October 9, 1899, after protracted negotia- 
tions, and when a large force was on the way 
to the Cape, the Transvaal issued an ulti- 
matum. 

The South African War was the first contest 



THE BRITISH EMPIRE 21 

with white men in which Great Britain had 
engaged since the Crimean conflict. It was 
quickly apparent that both the Intelligence 
Department and the equipment of the army 
were gravely at fault. Moreover, Sir Redvers 
Buller, the Commander-in-Chief, failed to 
justify his appointment. But when in the 
closing days of the year the British forces 
were defeated thrice in a single week, Lord 
Roberts was sent to take command, with 
Lord Kitchener as his chief colleague. The 
opening months of 1900 completely changed 
the situation. The Boer commandos fell 
back, Bloemfontein and Pretoria were occupied 
and the Republics annexed. 

The outbreak of hostilities banished every 
other subject of political discussion. The 
masses once again surrendered themselves 
without reserve to the intoxicating emotions 
of a great and victorious conflict. Owing to 
mob violence public discussion of the policy 
of the Government was almost confined to 
the walls of Parliament. While, with one 
or two notable exceptions, Unionists believed 
it to be a just and necessary war, Liberal 
opinion was sharply divided. Campbell- 
Bannerman, who had succeeded Harcourt 
as the leader of the party early in 1899, spoke 
for the great majority of his followers when 
he declared that it might have been avoided 
by a more tactful statesmanship ; but he 



22 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

shared the almost universal opinion that the 
conflict once begun must be carried to a 
successful issue. A smaller section, calling 
themselves Liberal Imperialists, pronounced 
the war to be inevitable. While the party 
was thus paralysed by acute dissensions, 
Salisbury suddenly dissolved Parliament in 
September 1900. The result of a Khaki 
election is never in doubt, and the Unionists 
were returned by an undiminished majority. 
But the Boers developed an unsuspected 
power of resistance, and it was not till April 
1902 that peace was concluded by the Treaty 
of Vereeniging. In addition to an immense 
increase of taxation, the war had added 
160 millions to the National Debt. 

When the conflict was over public attention 
again began to turn to domestic affairs. 
Queen Victoria had died early in 1901, and 
Salisbury resigned on the ground of failing 
health at the conclusion of the war, the 
reversion falling to Mr, Balfour. In the 
election of 1900 Mr. Chamberlain and other 
Unionist leaders had invited Liberal support 
on the understanding that domestic con- 
troversies would not be dealt with in the 
coming Parliament. Despite these promises 
a Bill was passed in 1902 which abolished 
School Boards and transferred the control 
of elementary education to County and Town 
Councils. Denominational schools were al- 



THE BRITISH EMPIRE 23 

lowed support from the rates ; and though 
the pubhc authority controlled the secular 
education given in them, the head teacher 
was compelled to belong to the denomination, 
and a permanent majority of denominational 
managers was guaranteed. In 1904 a scarcely 
less controversial measure gave licence-holders 
a statutory right to compensation from a 
fund levied on the trade if the licence was 
not renewed. 

The most important legislative achievement 
of the Parliament was the Irish Land Act 
of 1903. Dual ownership had broken down 
despite the reduction of rents decreed by 
the Land Court set up by Gladstone in 1881, 
and far-seeing landlords and tenants were 
coming to regard purchase as the only 
solution of their troubles. At a Conference 
held in 1902 under the chairmanship of 
Lord Dunraven, who occupied a position 
midway between the rival orthodoxies of 
Dublin and Belfast, a scheme was framed 
which supplied the basis of the Wyndham 
Act. To bridge the gulf between the price 
the tenant could pay and the price the landlord 
could accept, a bonus of 12 per cent, was 
promised by the Treasury. The landlord 
received cash, while the tenant was to pay 
off the purchase money in 68 1 years by 
annual instalments which represented less 
than his old rent. Under this Act, the 



24 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

finance of which proved unsound and had 
to be amended in 1909, Ireland is rapidly- 
becoming a country of small free-holders. 
Economic prosperity has steadily increased, 
and a remarkable intellectual revival, power- 
fully fostered by the Gaelic League, is in 
progress. The demand of Catholic Ireland 
for autonomy remains unaffected by good 
no less than by evil fortune. 

Among other activities of the Balfour 
Ministry was the reorganisation of the army. 
The office of Commander-in-Chief was abol- 
ished, and control was transferred to an 
Army Council presided over by the Secretary 
for War. Still more important was the 
creation of a Committee of Imperial Defence 
under the presidency of the Prime Minister. 
Higher pay and greater comfort for the 
private soldier augmented the cost of the 
Army ; but a still larger increase took place 
in the Navy estimates. The appointment 
of Sir John Fisher to the post of First Sea 
Lord in 1904 was followed by the scrapping 
of obsolete ships, the concentration of the 
fleet, and a revision of the methods of selecting 
cadets. The policy of the Government was 
laid down in the Cawdor Memorandum of 
1905, which advised the annual construction 
of four battleships of the newly invented 
Dreadnought type. 

The Ministry began to lose its popularity 



THE BRITISH EMPIRE 25 

soon after the close of the war, and the by- 
elections went steadily against it. The 
fruitless campaigns against the " Mad 
Mullah " in Somaliland aroused increasing 
disgust, and the expedition to Lhassa in 
1904 failed to secure either political or 
territorial advantages. The report of a 
Committee on Physical Degeneration aroused 
universal attention, and suggested the 
necessity of a bolder handling of social 
problems. In 1903 the Government was 
shaken by an internal convulsion. On his 
return from a visit to South Africa Mr. 
Chamberlain startled the world by a speech 
demanding Colonial Preference as a means 
of binding the Empire together. He had 
invited the Colonies at the Jubilee of 1897 
to form a Zollverein ; but though Canada 
granted a preference to British goods, and 
her example was subsequently followed by 
other Colonies, none of them allowed free 
entry. He had next attempted to introduce 
Preference by a back door when the Cabinet 
proposed to remit the shilling duty on corn 
imposed by Sir Michael Hicks -Beach for 
revenue purposes in 1901 ; but his successor, 
Ritchie, insisted on total abolition. Beaten 
in the Cabinet Mr. Chamberlain appealed to 
public opinion. Mr. Balfour declared for 
retaliation as a means of reducing tariffs, 
but refused to accept the taxation of food, 



26 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

and declared that no changes would be 
made by the existing Parliament. In 
September the storm burst. Mr. Chamberlain 
resigned in order to be free to conduct his 
campaign; and Ritchie, Lord George Hamilton, 
and the Duke of Devonshire, because they 
were unable to agree with the Prime Minister's 
newly announced fiscal views. The ex- 
Chancellors, Goschen and Hicks-Beach, also 
declared their opposition to the Chamberlain 
programme, while Mr. Winston Churchill 
and a few other prominent Unionists crossed 
the floor of the House. 

The Cabinet, reconstructed with lesser 
men, held on for two years more, but with 
diminishing strength and prestige. In 1905 
Mr. Wyndham was forced to resign by the 
Irish Unionists, who denounced him for 
coquetting with the devolution schemes of 
Lord Dunraven and the Under Secretary, 
Sir Antony Macdonnell. A measure aimed 
at the pauper alien evoked no enthusiasm, 
and the Unemployed Workmen Act satisfied 
nobody. Indignation was aroused by the 
introduction of Chinese coolies into the 
Transvaal mines under conditions that 
existed nowhere else in the British Empire. 
Conscious of the growing unpopularity of his 
Government, and weakened by the divisions 
of his party, Mr. Balfour resigned office in 
November 1905. He had displayed remark- 



THE BRITISH EMPIRE 27 

able parliamentary skill ; but the greatest 
personal success of the Ministry was Lord 
Lansdowne, whose treaties with Japan and 
France and skilful handling of the Macedonian 
problem revealed his rare diplomatic ability. 

On the resignation of Mr. Balfour, Campbell- 
Bannerman undertook the task of forming 
a Ministry. When he accepted the leader- 
ship of the Liberal party he was only known 
as a capable administrator. The divisions 
that had caused Lord Rosebery to resign his 
post in 1896 and Harcourt to follow his 
example three years later were intensified 
on the outbreak of the Boer War ; but he 
held tenaciously to his convictions and waited 
with patient confidence for the turn of the 
tide. The inauguration of the Protectionist 
campaign in 1903 disunited the Unionists 
and reunited the Liberals. Among the 
champions of Free Trade none was more 
active than Lord Rosebery ; but, shortly 
before the change of ministry, he asserted 
that he would never serve under a Home 
Rule banner. Despite his withdrawal his 
political friends accepted office in the new 
Ministry. The Liberal programme was 
announced by the Prime Minister at the 
Albert Hall, and Parliament was dissolved 
in the New Year. Though a Liberal victory 
was anticipated, the crushing defeat of the 
Unionists was somewhat of a surprise. But 



28 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

the country was ripe for a change both of 
measures and men. It had had its fill of war 
and adventure, and craved more nourishing 
fare. The election marks the end of the 
period of Unionist predominance and Im- 
perialist expansion, the era of Chamberlain 
and Kipling. Among the striking features 
of the election were the solid opposition of 
the North to Protection and the unwavering 
loyalty of Birmingham to its greatest citizen. 
But its most important incident was the 
return of 29 members of the Independent 
Labour Party. The Labour Representation 
Committee, founded in 1900, had done its 
work well. Mr. Keir Hardie had sat alone 
in the Parliament of 1892, and he and one or 
two more working men were members of the 
Parliament of 1900. They now formed a 
recognised party, which quickly earned respect 
by its ability, its sincerity, and its scrupulous 
observance of the forms of the House. While 
the working men who sat on the Liberal 
benches represented the older and more 
individualist Trade Union tradition, the 
Independent Labour Party was predomin- 
antly Socialist, and spoke also for the New 
Unionism, which dates from the Dock strike 
of 1889. 

One of the first tasks of the new Govern- 
ment was to prohibit the further introduc- 
tion of Chinese labour into South Africa, and 



THE BRITISH EMPIRE 29 

to grant self-governing institutions to the 
Transvaal and the Orange River Colony. 
The Chinese were repatriated without damage 
to the mining interest, and British and Dutch 
began to co-operate in the development of 
their common country. In 1909 the two 
new Colonies combined with the Cape and 
Natal, and in 1910 General Botha became 
head of the first Union Cabinet. Thus 
South Africa at last passed out of British 
party controversy. 

The most important Bill of the opening 
session was designed to remove the grievances 
arising under the Education Act of 1902 ; 
but the Lords insisted on alterations which 
the Government refused to accept. Subse- 
quent attempts met with no better fortune ; 
but larger provision was made for Non- 
conformists in denominational Training 
Colleges receiving State aid. The first ses- 
sion also witnessed the addition of 6 million 
workers to those already entitled to com- 
pensation for accident, the restoration to 
Trade Unions of the powers which they had 
possessed before the Taff Vale judgment, the 
recognition of the rights of the Tenant 
Farmer, and the authorisation of contribu- 
tions from the rates to the feeding of neces- 
sitous school children. A measure to abolish 
plural voting was rejected by the House of 
Lords. The session of 1907 was shorter 



80 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

and less eventful. A Territorial army was 
created in which the old Volunteer associa- 
tions were merged, new facilities were granted 
for the establishment of Small Holdings, and 
medical inspection of school children was 
inaugurated. On the debit side Bills to 
create Small Holdings in Scotland and to deter- 
mine the capital value of land were rejected 
by the Lords. A Bill transferring certain 
departments of local administration to a 
Council sitting in Dublin was condemned 
by the Nationalists as inadequate and with- 
drawn by the Government. When the session 
was over the Prime Minister was struck 
down. He resigned early in 1908, and 
died soon after. While the Boer War had 
shown his courage and tenacity, his leader- 
ship of the House revealed his rare parlia- 
mentary skill and his unequalled capacity 
for inspiring the affectionate confidence of 
his followers. Mr, Asquith became Prime 
Minister, and his place as Chancellor of 
the Exchequer was filled by Mr. Lloyd 
George. 

The session of 1908 was as crowded and 
eventful as that of 1906. Measures establish- 
ing Old Age Pensions at the age of seventy 
and protecting child life against moral and 
physical evils were carried ; but the largest 
and boldest project, the Licensing Bill, 
was rejected by the Lords. Mr. Asquith 



THE BRITISH EMPIRE 81 

immediately declared that the Veto was 
henceforward the dominant issue in politics, 
and the session of 1909 witnessed the out- 
break of fierce hostilities between the Houses. 
Bills to establish a University for Irish 
Catholics and to increase the power of public 
authorities over housing and town planning 
were passed ; but the Budget, which had to 
find 14 millions to defray the rapidly in- 
creasing expense of the Navy and Old Age 
Pensions, was rejected by the Lords on 
November 30. Their action, which was 
chiefly due to dislike of the land taxes, 
rendered a dissolution inevitable, and the 
double issue of the Budget and the Veto 
was submitted to the electors. Ireland, 
Scotland, Wales, and the North of England 
stood firmly by the Government ; but the 
Unionists won back the South and returned 
to Westminster with a net gain of 100 
seats. The two great parties were almost 
exactly equal, but the support of the Labour 
and Nationalist members furnished a majority 
of 122 opposed to the Veto of the Upper 
House. 

The Lords accepted the Budget of 1909, 
which was sent up to them unchanged. The 
Government's policy was then presented in 
the form of resolutions, the first abolishing 
the veto on finance, the second limiting the 
veto on other measures to two years, the 



32 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

third reducing the Ufe of Parliament from 
7 to 5 years. The Hmitation of the veto had 
been urged by Bright in 1884, by Gladstone 
in his valedictory speech, and by Lord 
Rosebery while Prime Minister. It had been 
approved by the Commons on the init' * ' 
of Campbell -Banner man in 1907, and 
now reaffirmed after prolonged d< j 

Meanwhile the House of Lords, on tt 
stigation of Lord Rosebery, passed r 
tions providing that the possession oi a 
peerage should not of itself carry with it a 
seat in the Upper House. While the armies 
thus stood facing each other in battle array, 
King Edward VII suddenly died, and the 
leaders of the two great parties entered into 
a Conference. Political strife was for the 
moment hushed, and the opportunity was 
seized to redraft the Coronation Oath. In 
November the failure of the Conference was 
announced, and Parliament was immediately 
dissolved. The Unionist leaders promptly 
outlined a plan for reducing the size of the 
Upper Chamber, obtaining half its members 
by election or nomination, and settling 
grave disputes by a Referendum. Thus one 
party proposed the alteration of its com- 
position, the other the limitation of its 
powers. The undertaking of Mr. Balfour 
to submit Tariff Reform to a Referendum 
before embodying it in law assisted in con- 



THE BRITISH EMPIRE 33 

centra ting attention on the constitutional 
question by enabling Unionist Free Traders 
to support their old party. The decision 
of the country was asked and given on 
a single issue, and the Government was 
confirmed in power by an undiminished 
majority. 

While domestic controversy remains acute, 
a considerable measure of agreement has 
been reached in regard to external questions. 
Both parties accept the Japanese Alliance 
and the Triple Entente, both support un- 
conditional arbitration with the United 
States and the maintenance of a supreme 
Navy. Few men on either side any longer 
wish either to increase or diminish the size 
of the Empire. ) The problem of to-day is 
to defend, develop, and consolidate the vast 
territories which owe allegiance to the British 
crown, Canada, Australia, and South Africa 
are now less daughter nations than allies. 
The Colonial Conference has become the 
Imperial Conference, the Colonies have be- 
come Dominions, and their Governments 
negotiate commercial treaties with foreign 
Powers. Canada and Australia are creating 
their own fleets. More frequent and system- 
atic consultation between the Governments 
is desirable, and an important step was 
taken at the Conference of 1911, when 
the foreign policy of the Mother Country 

B 



34 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

was explained to the Dominion Premiers. 
But every project of fiscal, military, and 
political unification must be tested by its 
bearing on the sovereign principle of local 
autonomy. 



CHAPTER II 

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC 

The history of the Third RepubKc is a 
record of earnest and successful endeavour 
to extricate France from the abyss into 
which she was plunged by Napoleon III, and 
to make her a powerful, prosperous, and 
democratic State. The thread which runs 
through and connects the main events of 
the last forty years is the establishment of 
republican institutions and their defence 
against enemies within and without. Though 
all Frenchmen are not yet republicans, time 
has confirmed the truth of Thiers' famous 
words, "It is the Republic which divides 
us least." When the Comte de Chambord 
refused to accept the tricolour flag, all but 
the most extreme Monarchists ceased to 
work for his restoration. A republican Con- 
stitution was drawn up in 1875, the Clerico- 
Monarchist attack of Macmahon and the 
Due de Broglie was repulsed, the finances 
were placed on a sound basis by Leon Say, 
the army was enlarged and reorganised, 
b2 35 



36 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

Tunis was added to the Colonial Empire, 
secular education was instituted by Jules 
Ferry, and Grevy, a staunch Republican, 
was elected President in 1879. At Gambetta's 
death in 1882, the edifice of which he was the 
chief architect gave fair promise of stability. 

The Ministry of Ferry, which held office 
from 1883 to 1885, witnessed not only the 
extension of French Indo- China, but also a 
modification of the Constitution. It was 
enacted that the republican form of govern- 
ment should never be subject to revision, 
that members of the families which had 
reigned in France should be ineligible for 
the Presidency, that no more life senators 
should be created, and that single-member 
constituencies should be replaced by the 
scrutin de liste. The fall of the Ministry 
was followed by elections in which nearly 
half the votes were given to Monarchists. 
The Republicans were divided into the Op- 
portunists, who inherited the tradition of 
Gambetta, and the Radicals, of whom the 
most brilliant gladiator was Clemenceau ; 
but in face of the common danger they 
combined to elect Grevy for a second pre- 
sidential term. Their nervousness was 
further shown by the expulsion in 1886 of 
the leading members of families that had 
ruled in France, a measure aimed at the 
Comte de Paris, who, since the death of 



THE FRENCH REPUBLIC 87 

the childless Comte de Chambord in 1883, 
had become the candidate of Legitimists 
as well as Orleanists. 

A foe more formidable to the Republic 
than the Comte de Paris was at hand. Early 
in 1886 Boulanger, whom Gambetta had 
called one of the four best officers in France, 
became Minister of War in the Freycinet 
Ministry. He possessed unusual energy, and 
he ingratiated himself with the soldiers by 
increasing their comforts. At a review on 
the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille 
he was received with acclamation by the 
crowd. A Boulangist movement began under 
the auspices of Rochefort and Deroul^de, 
the programme of which was the suppression 
of the parliamentary regime and the dictator- 
ship of the General. Early in 1887 his 
swaggering Chauvinism on the occasion of 
the arrest of Schnaebele increased his popu- 
larity with the mob. The fall of the Ministry 
of which he was a member and his dispatch 
to the command of an army corps in the 
provinces in no way diminished his influence. 
The Clerical, Monarchist, and Bonapartist 
parties saw a chance of overturning the 
Republic, and the Comte de Paris, in spite 
of Boulanger's scandalous conduct to his 
house, supplied money for the campaign. 

The danger was increased by a presidential 
crisis. Shortly after the re-election of Grevy 



38 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

it was discovered that his son-in-law, Wilson, 
was selling honours from the Elysee. The 
President was forced to resign, and though 
Carnot, the grandson of the Organiser of 
Victory, succeeded him, the prestige of the 
Republic received a damaging blow. At 
this moment of republican disillusion Bou- 
langer came to Paris without permission. He 
was deprived of his command, but was 
immediately elected to Parliament by an 
enormous majority. Though the General 
made no mark in the Chamber, he was returned 
by several departments. In January 1889 
his election for the department of the Seine 
by an overwhelming majority showed 
that Paris was behind him ; and had he 
struck on the night of his triumph, he would 
have slain the Republic. He let slip the 
opportunity of his life, and a few weeks later, 
on learning that he was to be arrested, fled 
from the country. In his absence he was tried 
for treason, and sentenced to perpetual im- 
prisonment. A few months later the suicide 
of the sham Napoleon in Brussels brought to 
a fitting close one of the most discreditable 
chapters in the history of modern France. 

The Exhibition of 1889 helped to restore 
confidence in the Republic. Single-member 
constituencies were restored and candidatures 
for more than one seat forbidden, and at the 
elections of 1889 the Royalist vote sank from 



THE FRENCH REPUBLIC 39 

45 to 21 per cent, of the total poll. A short 
period of calm followed the violent agitations 
of recent years. No legislation of importance 
was passed except that which, on the initiative 
of Meline, set up a general tariff in 1892. 
But the tranquillity was violently disturbed 
by the Panama scandals. The great engineer 
De Lesseps, after constructing the Suez Canal, 
determined to pierce the Isthmus of Panama, 
a project as old as Philip II. The thrifty 
peasantry readily entrusted him with their 
savings, and a company was formed in 1881. 
The engineering difficulties proved immensely 
greater than had been anticipated, and 
tropical diseases played havoc with the 
workmen. In 1888 the Company was in need 
of further capital, and, failing to obtain 
it, suspended the payment of interest. The 
shareholders were willing to forfeit their interest 
till the opening of the canal, and De Lesseps 
was offered the chairmanship of a new 
Company, with a million to complete the work. 
But he had lost his buoyant self-confidence, 
and refused to undertake further responsi- 
bilities. Moreover, the United States, which 
had kept up a running fire of criticism from 
the start, now expressed open hostility. 
Three foreign Commissioners were sent to 
Panama, and their report destroyed the last 
illusions of the hapless investors. Though 
50 millions had already been raised, 30 milKons 



40 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

more would be required, and when the canal 
was open for traffic the prospect of revenue 
was small. These revelations were followed 
by others which intensified the poignancy 
of the disaster. It was discovered that barely 
two-thirds of the vast sum already raised 
had been spent on the isthmus. A Parlia- 
mentary Committee, appointed in the autumn 
of 1892, reported that past and present 
members of both Chambers had received 
money. Early in 1893 the Directors of the 
Company were brought to trial, De Lesseps 
himself was sentenced to imprisonment ; but 
as he was nearly ninety, and almost imbecile, 
he was allowed to end his days in peace. The 
Boulanger crisis revealed the strength of the 
enemies of the Republic. Panama disclosed 
the moral weakness of some of its own 
champions. It seemed, indeed, to be pursued 
by a remorseless fate. In 1894 the blameless 
Carnot was assassinated by an anarchist, and 
his successor, Casimir - Perier, after seven 
months of office, resigned his exalted post. 
He had been violently attacked by the 
Socialists and the Extreme Left, and his 
ministers withheld from him decisions in 
reference to foreign policy and national 
defence. 

While the Republic was thus receiving 
blow upon blow, it seemed as if it were 
about to make peace with one of its most 



THE FRENCH REPUBLIC 41 

formidable adversaries. Though the clergy 
had hated the Italian policy of Louis Napoleon, 
they at any rate preferred him to his suc- 
cessors. When Macmahon dismissed Jules 
Simon and appointed the Due de Broglie, 
the Church warmly supported the attempt 
of the Royalists to capture the executive. 
It was after the historic election of 1877 
that Gambetta uttered his famous declaration 
" Le Clericalisme, voila I'ennemi." Open 
war was declared when Ferry banished the 
Jesuits and attempted to forbid members 
of unauthorised Orders to teach. Under 
the circumstances it was not surprising that 
the Church and the Orders should have 
supported Boulanger in his endeavour to 
overturn the Republic. 

The Boulangist crisis suggested to many 
Republicans the desirability of attempting 
to disarm the hostility of the Church ; and a 
powerful influence in the direction of peace 
was exerted from the Vatican. In 1890 
the saintly Cardinal Lavigerie hoisted the 
signal of reconciliation by proposing the 
toast of the Republic in the presence of 
French officers on a visit to Algiers, and in 
1892 the Pope took the decisive step of 
issuing an Encyclical urging French Catholics 
to rally to the Republic. The majority of 
Royalists, led by the Comte de Mun, followed 
his injunctions and formed the party of the 



42 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

" Rallies." The Republicans showed theii 
appreciation by dropping the demand for 
the separation of Church and State in the 
elections of 1893 ; but the halcyon days 
were few and were followed by far fiercer 
combats, 

A new element of discord had been intro- 
duced by a campaign against the Jews, 
inaugurated by Drumont. His contention 
that France was being exploited by alien 
financiers received some shadow of con- 
firmation from the Panama scandals. The 
support of Catholics was secured by attributing 
the anti-clerical policy of the Republic to 
the influence of the Jews, while the army 
was adjured to purge itself of the Semitic 
virus which was alleged to be working on 
behalf of the national enemy. In October 
1894, La Libre Parole announced a concrete 
case of treason. Captain Dreyfus, a Jewish 
officer of artillery, was arrested on the charge 
of betraying military secrets to Germany. 
He was tried by court-martial, sentenced to 
detention for life, publicly degraded, and 
transported to an island ojft French Guiana. 
Though the arrest attracted little notice at 
the time, many of his co-religionists sus- 
pected that his' condemnation was unjust. 
In 1896 Colonel Picquart, who had become 
head of the Intelligence Department of the 
War Office, informed the Minister for War 



THE FRENCH REPUBLIC 43 

that he believed the incriminating letter to 
have been written by Major Ester hazy. 
The War Office replied by sending Picquart 
on foreign service and replacing him by 
Colonel Henry. The next step was taken 
in 1897, when Scheurer-Kestner, a Protestant 
Senator, announced his conviction that the 
prisoner of the Devil's Isle was innocent ; 
but the Meline Ministry replied that it was 
impossible to go behind the judgment of 
the Court. 

France was now divided into hostile camps. 
On the side of Dreyfus were such doughty 
warriors as Clemenceau, Jaures, Joseph 
Reinach, Zola, and Anatole France; against 
him were the mob, the army, and the Church, 
with a few Catholic and Royalist intellectuels, 
such as Brunetiere and Jules Lemaitre, 
Coppee and Bourget. In the latter camp 
was also found President Faure, who had 
succeeded Casimir-Perier and whose loyalty 
to the Parliamentary Republic was not above 
suspicion. Esterhazy was acquitted of writ- 
ing the letter by a court-martial, Zola was 
condemned for an attack on the military 
authorities, and Picquart was imprisoned 
without trial for his championship of Dreyfus. 
The elections of 1898 led to the resignation 
of the Meline Cabinet and the forma- 
tion of a Radical Ministry under Brisson ; 
but the majority was still anti-Dreyfusard. 



44 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

When the Chamber met, the War Minister, 
Cavaignac, communicated to it new proofs 
of the prisoner's guilt ; but a month later 
Colonel Henry confessed that the documents 
had been forged by himself, and committed 
suicide in prison. The forgeries of Henry 
left the Government no choice but to refer 
the case to the Cour de Cassation. The trial 
was delayed by the hostility of Brisson's 
successor, Dupuy, but a formidable obstacle 
was removed by the sudden death of Faure 
in the early days of 1899. 

The defenders of Dreyfus were animated 
by an unselfish determination to secure the 
release of an innocent man ; but a simple 
miscarriage of military justice would not have 
convulsed France. As the drama developed 
Dreyfus became the symbol of principles 
which were supported or attacked without 
much reference to his guilt or innocence. 
His chief defenders were almost without 
exception Protestants, Jews, freethinkers, 
Radicals, and Socialists. The core of the anti- 
Dreyfusard coalition was anti-Republican, 
and the fight for Dreyfus developed into a 
fight for the Republic. On the day of Faure's 
funeral Deroulede, the poet of La Revanche 
and the champion of a plebiscitary executive, 
attempted to lead General Roget, a prominent 
anti-Dreyfusard who was on duty with his 
troops, against the Elysee. The attempt 



THE FRENCH REPUBLIC 45 

failed and Deroulede was banished ; but a 
few weeks later an organised assault on the 
new President, Loubet, on the racecourse 
at Auteuil, showed that the danger was not 
yet over. 

The existence of the Republic has been 
thrice seriously threatened. The attack of 
1877 had been mainly frustrated by Gam- 
betta, that of Boulanger by Constans. 
That it emerged unscathed from the still 
more formidable onslaught of the anti- 
Dreyfusards was mainly due to Waldeck- 
Rousseau, who took office when the failure to 
screen the head of the State from insult led 
to the fall of the Dupuy Ministry in June 
1899. Under the joint influence of the new 
President and the new Premier the forces 
of reason began to reassert themselves. 
Waldeck-Rousseau had already made his 
name at the bar when he entered Parliament 
in 1879. He quickly attracted the attention 
of Gambetta, and became Minister of the 
Interior in the Grand Ministere and 
again in the long Ministry of Jules Ferry. 
When the latter fell in 1885 his friend and 
follower returned to the bar, where his 
practice was so lucrative that it was generally 
believed that he would never again embark 
on the stormy sea of politics. Yet when the 
existence of the Republic seemed at stake 
in 1899 he responded to the call. His cool 



m HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

brain and reserved manners, his prestige 
and disinterestedness, exerted a tranquil- 
lising effect ; and his choice of colleagues 
gave ocular demonstration of his resolve to 
unite all sincere Republicans in defence of 
the State. Though declaring himself " a 
convinced individualist," he appointed the 
socialist Millerand Minister of Public Works. 
To reassure the army he persuaded General 
Galliffet, famous as a beau sabreur and as 
the executioner of the Communards, to 
accept the War Office. 

The first task of the new Ministry was to 
liquidate the case around which such furious 
passions had raged. In accordance with the 
decision of the Cour de Cassation, Dreyfus 
was brought home and tried before a court- 
martial at Rennes. He was found guilty 
by 5 votes to 2, and sentenced to ten years' 
detention ; but the verdict carried no weight, 
and the sorely tried Jew was immediately 
pardoned by the President of the Republic. 
The whole case was subsequently investi- 
gated by the Cour de Cassation, and Dreyfus 
was reinstated in the army with promotion 
to the rank of Major. The termination of 
" the affair " was, however, only the be- 
ginning of the task of reconstruction to 
which the Ministry was pledged. The great 
officers, " Nationalist " almost to a man, 
had usurped a position which no State could 



THE FRENCH REPUBLIC 47 

tolerate, and one of the first steps was to 
assert the absolute supremacy of the Govern- 
ment over the army. Waldeck-Rousseau 
assumed office not only to rescue the Republic 
from its enemies, but to take precautions 
that they should never be in a position 
to renew the attack. The rapprochement 
between the Church and the Republic was 
rudely disturbed when La Croix, the organ 
of the Assumptionists, and other clerical 
papers flung themselves with fiendish passion 
into the campaign against Dreyfus and violently 
traduced the supporters of the Republic. The 
attack was repulsed, and the Republicans pro- 
ceeded to retaliate. 

In 1900 the Premier announced the intro- 
duction of legislation in reference to Associa- 
tions. The authorisation of Government was 
required for any association, political, social, 
or religious, consisting of more than twenty 
persons ; and such authorisation the greater 
religious Orders had never received. Despite 
their precarious legal position their membership 
had grown sixfold since their nominal sup- 
pression by Ferry, while their property was 
estimated at forty millions. Such rapid progress 
in numbers and wealth was watched with a 
not too friendly eye by their historic rivals, 
the parochial clergy, who were assured by 
the Premier that they would not be affected 
by the coming legislation. The Bill was 



48 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

introduced in 1901 and passed with little 
opposition. The right to associate for legal 
purposes was freed from restrictions, but 
religious congregations could only be formed 
by a special statute, and the rules of each 
Order were to be submitted for approval. 
No member of an unauthorised Order could 
teach in any school. The Premier denied 
that the Bill was an attack on religion. 
There was no desire, he declared, for a whole- 
sale suppression. Each case would be de- 
cided on its merits. Several Orders, the 
Assumptionists among them, failed to regu- 
larise their position, and were at once 
proscribed. 

In 1902, after an election which confirmed 
his power, Waldeck-Rousseau, whose health 
had rapidly deteriorated, resigned office. 
Two years later he died at the age of fifty- 
six. His three years' rule had re-established 
the prestige of France, and his place in the 
hierarchy of the statesmen of the Third Re- 
public is only a little below that of Gambetta 
and Ferry. His successor. Combes, a zealous 
anti-clerical, who had been educated as a 
seminarist, continued the campaign against 
the Associations with a harshness which 
provoked public condemnation of the author 
of the law. In the next place, he closed schools 
recently opened in private buildings on the 
ground that they were conducted by members 



THE FRENCH REPUBLIC 49 

of religious Associations, and followed by 
the suppression of those conducted by Orders 
which had not applied for authorisation. 
In 1904 a further law forbade members even 
of authorised Orders to teach. Though the 
harrying of the Associations involved exile 
and poverty to individuals, the policy of 
the Government was supported or regarded 
with indifference by the mass of the nation. 
No sooner were the Associations dissolved 
than an even graver step became imminent. 
Combes had declared that his shafts would 
be aimed at the monks, not at the priests ; 
but the distinction could not long be main- 
tained. Though the separation of Church and 
State had been advocated in the earlier 
years of the Republic, little was heard of 
it after the papal utterance of 1892, and it 
was disavowed by Waldeck-Rousseau. None 
the less an annual motion was brought for- 
ward by the Extreme Left, and after the 
intervention of the Church in the Dreyfus 
crisis the demand for separation became 
louder. With the accession of Pius X in 
the summer of 1903, the conciliatory policy 
of Leo and Rampolla was discontinued. 
The Premier challenged the wording of the 
papal bulls for the institution of bishops, 
contending that the Papacy had no choice 
but to institute the candidate nominated 
by the Government. A deadlock ensued, and 



50 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

no further bishops were appointed under 
the Concordat, which Combes now threatened 
to abrogate. The Pope pubhcly denounced 
the tendencies of the French Government, 
and when President Loubet paid a return visit 
to Victor Emanuel in Rome in April 1904 
he loudly protested. To this tactless step 
the Ministry replied by withdrawing the 
French ambassador to the Vatican. Shortly 
after the Pope issued orders to two bishops 
without communication with the Govern- 
ment. Combes retorted by withdrawing the 
French charge d'affaires and advising the 
recall of the papal nuncio from Paris. 

The inevitable sequel of the embittered 
conflict was the abrogation of the Concordat. 
In pursuance of his task of pacification 
Napoleon had restored the Church in 1801. 
Following the Galilean tradition the Con- 
cordat reserved large powers to the executive ; 
and Organic Articles were drawn up which, 
though not accepted by the Pope, were 
applied by successive Governments. The 
arrangement lasted for a century, and might 
have continued but for the almost simultane- 
ous accession to power of two ^ such enemies 
of compromise as Pius X and Emile Combes. 
In the autumn of 1904 a Committee of the 
Chamber was appointed to inquire into the 
problem of separation. The report of its 
chairman, Briand, a Socialist barrister, 



THE FRENCH REPUBLIC 51 

formed the basis of the proposals presented 
to Parliament early in 1905 and carried into 
law by the end of the year. The Combes 
Ministry fell before the discussion began ; 
but its policy survived it. The Separation 
Law declared that the Republic no longer 
recognised nor supported any religious 
organisation, and that the property of such 
bodies, of which an inventory was to be 
made by the State, should be transferred 
to Associations of Public Worship. Salaries 
were continued for life in the case of the 
older clergy, and in other cases according 
to the length of service. Precisely the same 
arrangements applied to Protestant and 
Jewish ministers, who had likewise received 
salaries from the State, and who, though 
loyal to the Republic, had to suffer with the 
rest. The taking of the inventories of the 
Churches led to frequent conflicts, in which 
the troops had on several occasions to inter- 
vene. 

The kernel of the scheme was the Associtt' 
tion Cultuelle, which the Protestants and 
Jews adopted, and which with few exceptions 
the French bishops approved ; but the 
Pope, after long consideration, forbade their 
formation. The clergy had no choice but 
to submit, and valuable resources passed out 
of their control. Sincere sympathy for the 
plight of the Church was felt by moderate 



52 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

Republicans, and Briand, who became 
Minister of Education and Public Worship 
in the Clemenceau Cabinet in 1906, adminis- 
tered the law with marked forbearance. 
Thus the Republic disarmed one of its most 
dangerous foes ; but the power of the Church 
for evil or for good has been diminished as 
much by the growing indifference of the 
nation as by drastic legislation. In most 
districts the men have long held ostentatiously 
aloof from its ministrations, and even in 
Brittany, that relic of a vanishing world, its 
influence is waning. Protestantism holds 
its own but makes no conquests ; and as its 
adherents number little over half a million, 
it plays but a small part in the religious 
life of the nation. In no country has reli- 
gion so entirely ceased to receive official 
recognition. 

Since the termination of the prolonged 
struggle with the Church the attention of 
French statesmen has been mainly directed 
to labour problems. The Commune brought 
suspicion on every kind of Socialism, and it 
was not till the banished leaders returned 
after the amnesty of 1879 that it began to 
raise its head. For a time its leader was 
Jules Guesde, an orthodox Marxist ; but 
before long Benoit Malon, Brousse, and 
Allemane declared that more was to be 
hoped for from piecemeal reform than from 



THE FRENCH REPUBLIC 53 

a frontal attack on society. They stood for 
what was possible, and the " Possibilists " 
broke off from the intransigeants. Trade 
Unions were legalised in 1884, and a rap- 
prochement between Radicals and moderate 
Collectivists was vigorously urged by Jaures 
and Milierand, two bourgeois converts to 
Socialism. In the election of 1893 fifty 
Socialists were returned, and the Socialist 
vote again increased at the election of 1898. 
The entry of Milierand into a " bourgeois " 
Cabinet in 1899 incensed the party of Guesde, 
and the new Minister was denounced as a 
renegade. Undeterred by these attacks, the 
main body of Socialist deputies, brilliantly 
marshalled by Jaures, formed an essential 
part of the bloc to which France owed her 
restoration to health and strength. The 
alliance became more intimate under Combes, 
and when Clemenceau took office in 1906 he 
appointed a Socialist, Viviani, to the newly 
created Ministry of Labour. But the relations 
between the Radicals and Socialists now began 
to show signs of strain. The attack on the 
Church which had brought them together 
was over, and the leader of the Left dis- 
appointed the hopes aroused by his accession 
to office. Social legislation was neglected, 
strikes were quelled with extreme severity, 
and the Prime Minister lost no opportunity 
of emphasising his contempt for Socialism. 



54 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

The main reason, however, for the dis- 
integration of the bloc was less the personaHty 
of Clemenceau than the emergence of 
revolutionary types of thought in labour 
circles. On the one hand, a section of 
Socialist opinion extended its support to the 
extreme pacifism of Herve, who advised a 
military strike in case of war. On the other, 
the General Confederation of Labour, founded 
in 1896, developed into a body frankly 
contemptuous of parliamentary and con- 
stitutional action. A strike in which the 
capital was deprived of electric light was 
organised by the Confederation. The growing 
power and audacity of " Syndicalism " 
alarmed the middle classes, and when the 
Prime Minister hit back he w^as warmly 
supported by the bulk of public opinion. 
Though the constitutional Socialists as a 
body never identified themselves with these 
extreme schools of thought, they condemned 
the sentences passed upon their spokesmen. 
When the championship of the bourgeoisie 
became one of the main tasks of the Ministry, 
both sides realised that the bloc was at an end. 

By an irony of fate the relations of the 
parties became still more hostile when the 
first Socialist Premier succeeded Clemenceau 
in 1909. In his hot youth Briand had advo- 
cated the general strike ; but he had long 
been a convinced " Possibilist." The new 



THE FRENCH REPUBLIC 55 

Minister quickly announced his desire for a 
policy of " appeasement," and hinted that 
the dangers which had rendered the bloc 
necessary had passed away. His utterances 
aroused the lively suspicion of the Extreme 
Left ; and open war was declared in 1910 
when a serious strike, accompanied by 
violence, broke out on the railways. The 
Prime Minister affected to treat it as an out- 
burst of anarchy, and quelled it by calling 
out the strikers in their capacity of reservists. 
His colleagues accepted responsibility for the 
step, but some of them, including Millerand 
and Viviani, were unable to agree to the 
legal prohibition of railway strikes which the 
Premier demanded. Their resignations mark 
the end of the period of Socialist influence in 
ministerial policy which began in 1 899. While 
supporting such measures as Old Age Pensions, 
a progressive income tax, and the State pur- 
chase of railways, and while ready to rally 
to the defence of secular education and re- 
publican institutions, their attitude in Parlia- 
ment has changed from cordial co-operation 
to that of watchful neutrality. They hailed 
the fall of Briand in the spring of 1911 with 
delight, and welcomed the formation of the 
Monis Ministry as checking the recent trend 
towards the Right. 

The Republic is now so strong that it can 
at need dispense with Socialist support. The 



56 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

rapid change of ministries is not, as onlookers 
once believed, a sign of political instability, 
but an indication that the real centre of power 
is in the Chamber. The Royalist vote has 
steadily declined since 1885, and even in 
Brittany the existing regime is now accepted 
by a large majority of the electors. The 
peace and prosperity which it has brought 
form a powerful argument against attempted 
change. The Duke of Orleans, son of the 
Comte de Paris and great-grandson of Louis 
Philippe, has neither achievements nor per- 
sonality to reinforce his claim. The Royalist 
cause has received a slight accession of 
strength by the conversion of disillusioned 
intellectuels like Paul Bourget, who seek in 
the restoration of throne and altar a bulwark 
against the advancing flood of social and 
intellectual anarchy. On the other hand, it 
has been gravely prejudiced by the un- 
authorised antics of the Camelots du Roi, 
who advertise their contempt for the Republic 
by personal outrages on its high officials. 

The prospects of Bonapartism are no 
brighter. The disasters which Louis Napoleon 
brought on his country were too fresh to 
allow his party to raise its head in the years 
when the Republic was a tender infant. The 
death of the Prince Imperial in the Zulu 
campaign in 1879 made Prince Napoleon, 
the gifted son of King Jerome, head of the 



THE FRENCH REPUBLIC 57 

family ; but he was no favourite with his 
party, and even before his death in 1891 his 
eldest son, Prince Victor, was recognised as 
the head of the Bonapartists. Though there 
has been an extraordinary revival of the cult 
of the great Emperor during the last twenty 
years in consequence of the works of Masson, 
Vandal, Houssaye, and other historians, a 
political party can hardly be said to exist. 
The sole chance of a third Empire lies in a 
war or in the adoption of the " Nationalist " 
demand for a plebiscitary executive. If the 
Republic remains true to itself it has nothing 
to fear from its enemies. 



CHAPTER III 

THE LATIN SOUTH 



The group of statesmen who had co-operated 
with Cavour in the unification of Italy 
governed the new kingdom till the fall of 
Minghetti in 1876. High hopes were built 
on the triumph of the Left ; but the new 
pilots quickly showed themselves to be no more 
skilful than the old. Their chief, Depretis, who 
held office almost continuously for a decade, 
though personally incorrupt, well knew how 
to play on human weakness, and by his 
practice of drawing ministers from every 
party reduced politics to a game of skill. 
Elementary education was made compulsory, 
though without money to pay for it or machin- 
ery to enforce attendance, and the franchise 
was extended ; but the later years of his 
rule were marked by growing inertia and 
rising discontent. The country became weary 
of a minister who lacked conviction and 
58 



ITALY 59 

initiative, and when he died in 1887 the 
' accession of Crispi to office was hailed with 
dehght. 

The new Premier was 68 years old. He 
had begun life as a Republican, and had 
taken part in the revolt of his native Sicily in 
1848. He was one of The Thousand who 
landed at Marsala, and it was to him more 
than to any man except Garibaldi that the 
liberation of the island was due. After 
the dramatic events of 1860 he accepted the 
Monarchy and entered Parliament. When 
the Right fell in 1876 he became successively 
President of the Chamber and Minister of the 
Interior. The Court accepted him with a 
bad grace. Cavour and Victor Emanuel 
had detested him, and Humbert hked him 
little better. An unsuitable marriage cut 
him off from society, and his manner was 
brusque and arrogant. His accession to 
office revealed in their full extent both his 
ability and his defects. After the flabby 
administration of Depretis the country was 
glad to feel a firm hand on the reins. On 
the other hand, he proved to be both rash 
and variable. His temper became intolerable 
under pressure of work, for he was Foreign 
Secretary as well as Minister of the Interior 
and Premier. He began to be regarded as 
a danger to the country, and his lack of tact 
and contempt for the arts of parliamentary 



60 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

management led to his overthrow in 1891. 
Yet within three years an insurrection among 
the Sicihan peasantry and the critical state 
of the finances led to an irresistible demand 
for his recall. 

Crispi's second Administration forms a 
landmark in the history of modern Italy. 
Soon after the savage repression of the dis- 
orders in Sicily, it was announced that the 
Premier and his colleagues had received 
money from the Bank of Rome for the cor- 
ruption of the press and the electorate. 
Crispi at once dissolved Parliament and secured 
a sweeping majority by striking thousands of 
his opponents off the electoral list and aiding 
the Government candidates by a display of 
force. Backed by a large and docile majority, 
and at last enjoying the complete confidence 
of the King, Crispi's position appeared 
thoroughly secure. Two years later the 
most powerful Minister since Cavour had 
wrecked his ministry and terminated his 
public career. 

During the decade that succeeded unifica- 
tion Italy had wisely devoted her energies 
to domestic problems ; but on entering the 
Triple Alliance in 1882 it began to be felt 
that she ought to become a Great Power. 
Plans for a commercial settlement in Abyssinia 
had been discussed in the lifetime of Cavour ; 
but it was not till 1882 that Depretis bought 



ITALY 61 

a small strip of coast on the Red Sea from 
a Genoese Company. Three years later 
troops were sent to Massowa, a port in Abys- 
sinia, though it was declared to be merely 
a commercial settlement. In 1887 an advance 
into the interior was commenced on the 
pretext of finding healthy quarters for the 
troops among the hills. The Abyssinians, 
who had been ready to concede trading 
facilities, began to suspect designs on their 
independence. The Negus John demanded 
a withdrawal to the coast. The demand 
was refused, and a column of 500 men was 
cut to pieces at Dogali. At this moment 
the scene changed. John was killed in 
battle by the Dervishes, and his successor, 
Menelik, mounted the throne by Italian aid. 
The new ruler signed a treaty which the 
Italian Government understood to recognise 
I Protectorate over the whole of Abyssinia, 
^n 1894 Italian troops repulsed a Dervish 
.ttack and occupied Kassala. Menelik was 
low firmly on the throne, and, perhaps 
;ncouraged by France and Russia, repudi- 
ited all idea of a Protectorate. Crispi 
•eplied by ordering the occupation of Adowa, 
:he capital of one of the feudatory States, 
ind demanding a categorical recognition of 
:he Italian claim. Several small victories 
;vere won, but, while reinforcements were on 
:he way, General Baratieri with 14,000 men 



62 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

attacked an army of 80,000 and lost a third 
of his troops. The King and his Minister 
desired to continue the campaign ; but the 
nation passed from exultation to depression. 
Enough blood and money had been spent. 
The claim to a Protectorate was abandoned, 
Crispi resigned, and the ill-starred experi- 
ment in aggressive Imperialism was at an 
end. 

The disaster of Adowa was a blessing in 
disguise. Italy needed all her energies to 
set her own house in order. The high 
prices and crushing taxation intensified the 
discouragement, and the people began to 
lose faith in their rulers. The crisis came 
in 1898, when riots broke out in the great 
cities. For three days Milan was the scene 
of civil war, and the triumph of the troops 
was followed by savage repression. A panic 
seized on the propertied classes. General 
Pelloux introduced drastic bills relating to 
public meetings and associations, and when 
they were obstructed by the Left he issued 
them as ordinances by royal decree. The 
Supreme Court in Rome courageously de- 
clared them invalid, and, after a further 
attempt to pass the bills, the Premier dis- 
solved Parliament in 1900. In the Latin 
South the Government always obtains a 
majority ; but industrial Italy was hostile, 
the Left returned with increased strength, 



ITALY 63 

and Pelloux resigned. A few days later 
King Humbert was assassinated. 

The death of the King and the resignation 
of Pelloux brought to a close the mournful 
period which began with the Abyssinian 
disasters. Humbert possessed the courage 
of his race; but he lacked political insight, 
and during his later years he was captured 
by reactionary militarism. The new King, 
Victor Emanuel, belonged to a type totally 
different from his father and grandfather. 
A man of lofty character and scholarly 
interests, he had studied the social problems 
of which Humbert knew nothing and was 
wholly free from the craving for adventure 
which had led Italy to overtax her strength. 
He realised that the discontent which had 
led to the crisis of 1898 could only be cured 
by efficient government and fearless reform, 
and at once called the veteran Radical leader, 
Zanardelli, to office. Since his accession the 
fortunes of Italy have steadily improved. 
The termination of the tariff war with France 
in 1898 assisted the revival of trade, the 
production of silk and other staple industries 
rapidly increased, the financial credit of 
the country was restored, one surplus followed 
another, and Luzzatti's conversion of the 
National Debt in 1906 lightened the burden 
of taxation. The octroi on corn and flour 
was abolished, and the grants to education 



64 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

increased. On the other hand, successive 
Ministries have been confronted by incessant 
labour troubles. One of the features of the 
milder regime which began with the new 
reign was the toleration of strikes if legally 
conducted. Advantage was taken of the 
permission, and strikes abounded. In 1904 
a general strike, accompanied by the destruc- 
tion of property and the cutting of railways, 
caused a revulsion of feeling. Parliament 
was dissolved by Giolitti, who had succeeded 
Zanardelli, and the parties of the Extreme 
Left were routed. 

In addition to attempting to smooth the 
relations of employers and employed, Italian 
statesmen have been confronted with an in- 
dustrial problem which directly concerned the 
State. The railways have always possessed 
a bad reputation, and when the concessions 
of the private companies expired in 1905 
an irresistible demand arose for their pur- 
chase. The transfer was effected, and large 
sums were spent on improving the plant 
and increasing the pay of the employes ; 
but the defects of the old management were 
so inveterate that for a time the admini- 
strative chaos was increased rather than 
diminished. That Italy is poorly supplied 
with brains capable of grappling with com- 
plex administrative tasks was again re- 
vealed by the unskilful handling of the 



ITALY 65 

problem of relief after the earthquake of 
1908. 

The new reign has witnessed an advance 
in another direction. Though the claim to 
Temporal Power has never been surrendered, 
the old bitterness between the Papacy and 
the House of Savoy is gradually disappear- 
ing. At the outset of his pontificate Pius X 
allowed the Archbishop of Bologna to wel- 
come the King on his visit to the city, and to 
sit on his right hand at the reception banquet. 
Italy has been substituted for France as 
the Protector of the Eastern Catholics. 
Though in theory abstaining from active 
politics, faithful sons of the Church have 
been permitted, and even encouraged, to 
take part in warring against Socialists and 
anti-clericals. It may still be long before 
a bridge is built from the Vatican to the 
Quirinal ; but the movement is in the direc- 
tion of compromise. 

Though the balance-sheet of the last decade 
compares favourably with the era of Crispi 
and Humbert, there is still no ground for 
exaggerated optimism. The South remains 
a running sore — ^poverty-stricken, ignorant, 
superstitious, corrupt. That the Camorra 
is not yet extinct has been revealed by the 
prolonged trial at Viterbo. The earthquake 
which annihilated Messina and the villages of 
the Calabrian coast displayed the helplessness 
c 



6Q HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

as well as the misery of the population. The 
reforms brought forward by the Conservative 
leader, Sonnino, during his short Ministry of 
1906, were applied in an emasculated form 
when Giolitti returned to power. The land- 
tax was reduced, tariff exemptions were 
granted to infant industries, communications 
were improved, and new schools were opened. 
But the problem is so vast that improvement 
is at present scarcely perceptible. Another 
burden inherited by United Italy is the 
enormous National Debt, the interest on 
which amounts to a third of the annual 
expenditure of the State. In the next place, 
public life is still corroded with corruption. 
How little confidence is felt in the integrity 
of Parliament was revealed in the excite- 
ment that attended the revision of the ship- 
ping subsidies. Finally, Italian politics are 
sterilised by the obliteration of party dis- 
tinctions and the tendency to fissure within 
the ranks of the separate groups. It is above 
all his skill in the parliamentary game that 
has made the Liberal leader, Giolitti, the 
principal figure in Italian politics since the fall 
of Crispi, and perpetually brings him back to 
power when less practised performers have 
been hissed off the stage. 



SPAIN 67 



II 



The recent history of Spain is the record 
of a slow recovery from the condition of 
anarchy which prevailed during the middle 
decades of the century. The six years of 
confusion which followed the expulsion of 
Isabella in 1868 convinced the majority of 
Spaniards that the restoration of the Bourbon 
monarchy was inevitable. Nobody suggested 
the recall of the Queen ; but at the end of 
1874 her son, Alfonso, a lad of seventeen, on 
the advice of Canovas, the leader of his friends 
in Spain, issued a proclamation promising 
amnesty and constitutional government. The 
response was immediate. The army pro- 
claimed him, the Monarchists welcomed him, 
the Republicans accepted him. The young 
King was popular and sympathetic, though 
the moral atmosphere of his Court was no 
purer than that of his mother. The Con- 
servatives under Canovas and the Liberals 
under Sagasta alternately held office, according 
to the system of pre-arranged rotation v/hich 
flourishes in the Peninsula. The level of 
public life was low, but the country was tired 
of pronunciamentos and was grateful for a 
period of peaceful recuperation. In 1883 
the Pope declared his will that Don Carlos 
should receive no support from the clergy. 

Alfonso XII died of consumption in 
c2 



68 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

November 1885, leaving two daughters ; but 
it was known that Queen Christina, an 
Austrian princess, was expecting the birth of 
another child. Six months later a son was 
born. The birth of Alfonso XIII and the 
devotion of his mother appealed to the 
chivalry of the nation. When the young 
King recovered from a terrible illness in 
1890 Castelar, the veteran Republican, con- 
gratulated his mother and declared that he 
regarded Alfonso as doubly King, by law and 
by miracle. 

Domestic politics during the minority were 
uneventful, and universal suffrage was quietly 
restored by Sagasta in 1890. But Spain was 
confronted with a problem of overwhelming 
difficulty in her over-sea dominions. Though 
the vast fabric of Empire that she had estab- 
lished in the sixteenth century had gradually 
crumbled away, she held tenaciously to the 
fragments. Of these the richest and most 
important was Cuba. On the news of the 
expulsion of Isabella, a rising had taken place 
which smouldered on till 1878, when Martinez 
Campos, the Spanish commander, signed a 
convention promising liberal concessions. 
The convention was repudiated at Madrid, and 
a second rising broke out and was ruthlessly 
suppressed. If ever a country deserved to 
lose its colonies, it was Spain. The last act 
in the long drama began with a new and more 



SPAIN 69 

formidable revolt in 1895. Martinez Campos, 
whose name was the symbol of conciliation, 
was sent out with an olive branch. The 
Cubans had learnt to be suspicious of promises, 
and the General reported that the authority 
of Spain could only be restored by barbarous 
methods which he refused to employ. He was 
recalled in 1896 and succeeded by Weyler, 
already known as " the butcher," whose 
policy was to starve the rebels into surrender 
by destroying their crops and houses and 
herding the non-combatants in concentration 
camps. Though the Spaniards have never 
been squeamish in their dealings with native 
races, Weyler's methods were too much for 
them ; and when Canovas was murdered in 
1897 Sagasta returned to power resolved to 
bring the desperate struggle to an end. A 
new commander was sent out with an officer 
of autonomy, the Reconcentrados were set at 
liberty, and a Parliament was summoned. 

It was too late, for the Cubans insisted 
on independence. This time they knew that 
they were not without friends. In the early 
days of 1898 the battleship Maine was sent 
to Havana to defend American interests ; but 
soon after her arrival she was blown into the 
air by a mine. The catastrophe cannot have 
been the work of any responsible Spaniard, 
for Spain was now honestly bent on concilia- 
tion. But the situation had passed beyond 



70 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

the control of statesmen. A resolution was 
passed at Washington declaring the Cubans 
free and independent, and Spain was peremp- 
torily commanded to withdraw her forces 
from the island. To such a demand there 
could only be one response. The main fleet 
was sent to Cuba ; but the ships were foul, 
the guns obsolete and short of ammuni- 
tion. When they entered the harbour of 
Santiago, an American squadron took up 
its station outside. When the town was 
threatened from the land the fleet made a 
dash for liberty, but was sunk or driven 
ashore. The other Spanish fleet had already 
been destroyed in the harbour of Manila, 
the capital of the Philippines. Santiago 
quickly surrendered, preliminaries of peace 
were arranged in August, and a treaty was 
signed in Paris at the end of the year. Spain 
renounced her possession of Cuba, the Philip- 
pines, and Porto Rico. The loss of her 
transmarine empire was a most bitter 
humiliation; but it was quickly seen to be 
a blessing in disguise. For many years the 
colonies had been a source of continual ex- 
pense, and the perpetual conflict in Cuba 
had produced a great weariness. When the 
first pangs of defeat were over, a determina- 
tion to repair the loss by internal develop- 
ment manifested itself. Trade and commerce 
steadily increased, and the national credit 



SPAIN 71 

improved. The country was in a far healthier 
condition when the Regency ended in 1902 
than when it began. 

Alfonso XIII began his reign at the age of 
sixteen, and in 1906 married Princess Ena 
of Battenberg. The English marriage was 
popular, as it gave Spain a powerful friend 
and pointed in the direction of liberal govern- 
ment. The Regent had led a very secluded 
Hfe, and the revival of the normal activities 
of the Court was welcomed by Spanish 
society. The courage displayed by the youth- 
ful sovereigns on their wedding-day evoked 
a thrill of sympathy, and the dynasty has 
increased its hold on popular feeling. The 
young King has escaped the criticism often 
aimed at his mother of being too much 
under clerical influence, despite the fact that 
after the fall of Sagasta in 1898 the Con- 
servatives, led successively by Silvela and 
Maura, were almost continuously in office. 
After the death of the veteran Liberal leader, 
none of his lieutenants commanded the 
allegiance of the whole party; but in 1909 
two events, occurring simultaneously, brought 
the long period of Conservative domination 
to an end. 

Though Spain lost her distant possessions 
in 1898, she retained some stretches of the 
coast -line of Morocco. Her power extended 
but a very little way from the shore, and 



72 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

when iron and lead were discovered near 
Melilla and a railway built to the mines, the 
tribes revolted and some workmen were 
massacred. The rebellion developed into a 
war which required the dispatch of over 
40,000 troops. The casualties were con- 
siderable, and heat and fever did their deadly 
work. The expenditure of so much blood 
and money on a speculators' war was bitterly 
resented, and heartrending scenes were, wit- 
nessed at the departure of the conscripts for 
what was believed to be almost certain death. 
While the misfortunes of the Melilla campaign 
were undermining the position of the Maura 
Government, a fierce revolt suddenly broke 
out in Barcelona. The commercial capital 
of Spain has never loved Madrid, and the 
demand for Catalonian autonomy had steadily 
grown in strength. Moreover, Barcelona was 
the centre of the anti-clerical propaganda 
which characterises the growing cities of 
the Spanish sea-board. A riot grew out of 
the departure of conscripts for Melilla, and 
for several days the city was cut off from the 
outer world. Few lives were lost ; but a 
number of monasteries and churches were 
sacked. The revolt was quelled, martial law 
was proclaimed, and Ferrer, the founder of a 
network of popular schools with a secularist 
atmosphere, was tried by court-martial and 
shot. 



SPAIN 73 

The execution of Ferrer, nominally in 
consequence of alleged complicity in the 
revolt of Barcelona, was universally regarded 
as due to the animosity of the Church. It 
was at any rate a blunder as well as a crime. 
There was an angry explosion of anti-cleri- 
calism all over the world, and the prestige of 
Spain was seriously compromised. When the 
Chambers met, the Government was fiercely 
assailed by the parties of the Left. Maura 
resigned, and the veteran Liberal, Moret, 
formed a Ministry. Civil rights were restored 
to Catalonia, and the campaign in Morocco 
was concluded. After troublesome negotia- 
tions a treaty was signed by which Mulai 
Hafid agreed to pay an indemnity for the 
Riff campaign, recognised the right of Spain 
to hold for seventy-five years the territory 
she had conquered, and entrusted the policing 
of the adjoining districts to a Moroccan force 
under Spanish instructors. 

As Moret was not supported by the full 
strength of the party, he was succeeded in 
1910 by Canalejas, who, on the death of 
Sagasta, had become the leader of a group 
of independent Radicals, pledged to a bolder 
handling of Church questions than the main 
Liberal army cared to adopt. Clericalism 
had overreached itself under Maura's rule, 
and the number of monks and nuns, swollen 
by refugees from the Philippines and from 



74 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

France and exempt from nearly all taxation, 
was recognised in almost all quarters to be 
excessive. Many of them resided in Spain 
in defiance of the Concordat of 1851, limiting 
the number of authorised Orders to three. 
Canalejas determined to put the statute into 
operation, and at the same time prohibited 
the establishment of new religious houses, 
ordered their registration, and repealed the 
decree of 1876 forbidding the appearance of 
any emblem or notification on Protestant 
places of worship. Though the majority of 
the Conservative party supported these 
proposals, they aroused the hysterical 
opposition of the Church. Vast demonstra- 
tions and counter - demonstrations were 
organised throughout the country, and old 
and new Spain were brought face to face. 
The Vatican, while frankly expressing its 
dislike of the Premier's policy, discounten- 
anced the resort to violence, and actual 
conflicts were avoided. Neither Pius X 
nor Canalejas desire an open rupture, and 
the prospects of compromise on the limita- 
tion of the Orders have increased. 



Ill 

The fortunes of Portugal during the nine- 
teenth century closely resemble those of her 
neighbom\ Both countries have suffered 



PORTUGAL 75 

from a disputed succession, civil war, greedy 
politicians, and financial confusion. Both 
countries have seen over-sea possessions torn 
from them by conquest or revolution. After 
half a century of almost ceaseless confusion 
Portugal entered on a period of comparative 
tranquillity under Luis, who ascended the 
throne in 1861. The aged Saldanha forced 
himself on the King in 1870, but his quasi- 
dictatorship only lasted a few months. With 
the accession of Carlos in 1889 a reign began 
which witnessed numerous vicissitudes and 
ended in tragedy. The decline and fall of 
the House of Braganza, though mainly due 
to the faults of its members, was precipitated 
by events for which it had no responsibility. 
A few weeks after the new King came to 
the throne a revolution in Brazil overthrew 
the Emperor Pedro II, and established a 
Republic. Though the colony had declared 
its independence in 1822, it had continued to 
be governed by members of the Royal House. 
The blow struck in Rio was felt in Lisbon, 
and tlie small Republican party was spurred 
to further efforts. 

In the following year the Monarchy 
suffered a still more serious rebuff. During 
the heroic age when Portugal founded an 
empire in the East she had established 
fortified stations in Africa where her fleets 
might be repaired and provisioned. When 



76 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

the empire faded away, the African posses- 
sions remained as mute witnesses of a glorious 
past. With the partition of Africa in the 
last quarter of the nineteenth century they 
again became of potential importance, and 
the Portuguese Government claimed enormous 
areas of territory in the neighbourhood of 
their settlements. An award by Macmahon 
in 1875, deciding that Delagoa Bay belonged 
to Portugal not to Great Britain, stimulated 
her ambition. At the moment when the 
British South Africa Company was preparing 
its plans, Portugal claimed a broad belt of 
land right across the continent, and in 1889 
sent a large force under Major Pinto into the 
territory between the Zambesi and Lake 
Nyassa. The British Government pro- 
tested, and in 1890, after fruitless negotiations, 
dispatched an ultimatum. Resistance was 
out of the question ; but the public humilia- 
tion of a people that gloried in the epic 
stanzas of Camoens was passionately resented. 
Major Pinto became the hero of the hour, 
and a scapegoat was found in the King, 
who was accused of sacrificing his country to 
his Anglophile sympathies. When a British 
squadron visited the capital the tradesmen 
shut their shops, and Carlos was compelled 
to refuse the Garter offered by Queen Victoria. 
The revolution in Brazil and the British 
ultimatum so weakened the prestige of the 



PORTUGAL 77 

Monarchy that the Republicans were em- 
boldened to attempt its overthrow. A rising 
took place in Oporto in 1891 ; but the 
citizens of the second city in the kingdom 
stood aloof. Hundreds of conspirators were 
deported, the press was gagged, and an era 
of repression began. The people had little 
sympathy with the Republicans ; but they 
resented the suppression of their liberties, 
and the unpopularity of the King was 
intensified. 

The thrilling events of the opening years 
of the reign were followed by a period of 
outward tranquillity ; but the decline of 
the country continued at a rapid rate. The 
State was plundered by the Regeneradores 
and the Progressistas, who succeeded one 
another in office according to the approved 
principles of rotativism. The machine of 
government was hopelessly clogged with 
corruption. Despite heavy and increasing 
taxation, every year witnessed a fresh deficit. 
In 1892 it was impossible to meet the interest 
on the external debt. Long negotiations 
took place with the Council of Foreign 
Bondholders, and a special board was set 
up in Lisbon to supervise their interests. 
Some useful Acts were passed, but they were 
rarely put into execution. Factory Acts 
remained a dead letter. Elementary educa- 
tion was made compulsory, but attendance 



78 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

was not enforced. The framework of the 
Constitution was rendered more democratic. 
Provision was made for the eventual extinc- 
tion of hereditary peers, and in 1901 adult 
male suffrage, subject to the payment of a 
trifling sum in taxation and ability to read 
and write, was introduced. But the control 
of the people over the Government was in 
no way increased by these changes. The 
Crown retained its power to veto legislation 
and to issue decrees, and elections continued 
to yield whatever result the Government 
of the day desired. 

In 1906 Portuguese politics entered on a 
new phase when the King invited Franco to 
form an independent Ministry. His wealth 
diminished the temptation to dip his hands 
into the Treasury, and his private and political 
records were unblemished. Had he kept his 
promise of an honest and efficient adminis- 
tration, the country might have acquiesced 
in the temporary suspension of constitutional 
forms. A few economies were effected and 
a number of sinecures were abolished ; but 
the pay of the army and the civil list were 
increased. Though his wife, Amelia, a 
daughter of the Comte de Paris, brought an 
ample dowry, the King's extravagant tastes 
made it impossible to live within the limits 
of his income, and large sums of public 
money had been advanced to the royal 



PORTUGAL 79 

family. His debt to the State was assessed 
at £150,000, which the Minister pretended 
to discharge by the surrender of a royal 
yacht and the capitalisation of the rent 
paid by the State for the use of certain royal 
castles. Before Franco had been many 
months in office he had succeeded in setting 
the whole country against himself and his 
master As the opposition developed the 
King allowed him to assume the powers 
of a dictator. The Cortes were dissolved 
in 1907, and the Minister announced that 
he would rule without them. Newspapers 
were suppressed, meetings prohibited, and 
critics of the Government imprisoned or 
banished. Municipal councils were suspended 
on the ground of disaffection and their work 
performed by nominees. Political and civil 
liberty disappeared, and the world looked 
on, wondering when the crash would come. 
In January 1908, the royal family left 
the capital for one of their palaces in the 
country. The situation in Lisbon was known 
to be critical, and some small skirmishes 
took place with the police. At the end of 
the month Franco announced that he had 
discovered a conspiracy, and on January 31 
he issued a decree empowering the Govern- 
ment to imprison or expel suspects without 
form of law. On the following day the 
royal family returned, and while driving 



80 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

from the landing-stage to the palace were 
attacked by a band of men who sprang out 
from an arcade. The King and the Crown 
Prince were killed on the spot, Prince Manuel 
was slightly wounded, and the Queen escaped 
as if by a miracle from the hail of bullets. 
The mad experiment of Personal Govern- 
ment had failed, as it deserved to fail. The 
King was dead and the monarchy itself 
was mortally stricken. Franco fled across 
the frontier, his illegal decrees were annulled, 
and a coalition Ministry was formed. For 
a moment it was hoped that the sounder 
elements of the nation might rally round 
the youthful King and inaugurate a better 
era ; but the habits of generations were too 
deeply ingrained to be shaken off. King 
Manuel was only eighteen years old and 
lacked personality. No real attempt was 
made to discover the authors or instigators 
of the crime in Black Horse Square, and the 
ship of State drifted rudderless towards 
the rapids. 

While the dynastic parties were engaged 
in sterile conflicts and incessant ministerial 
crises, the Republicans were slowly maturing 
their plans. When the blow fell in October 
1910, the throne toppled over in a night. 
A republic was proclaimed, the palace was 
bombarded by rebel ships in the Tagus, 
the King fled from the capital, and after a 



PORTUGAL 81 

few hours' desultory fighting in the streets 
the RoyaH&t troops were defeated or joined 
the winning side. A Provisional Government 
was formed, and the provinces and the colonies 
accepted the revolution with alacrity. The 
disappearance of the House of Braganza 
was witnessed without a protest and without 
a sigh. The members of the new Govern- 
ment were able, honourable, and enlightened 
men ; but they lacked experience. The 
President, Professor Braga, was a scholar 
and poet of European reputation. The 
Foreign Minister, Machado, had lived in 
Paris, and was known for his wide culture 
and sympathetic personality. The Minister 
of Justice, Costa, was a lawyer of extreme 
opinions and iron will. Their ideal was 
a purely secular democracy. The monarchy 
was gone, and they were resolved that its 
allies, the Church and the Orders, which had 
stunted the intellect of the people, should 
follow it. The Republic could tolerate obscur- 
antism as little as despotism. Within a 
few days of the revolution they roughly 
expelled the Jesuits and other Orders on the 
strength of obsolete laws, and announced 
their intention of terminating the connection 
of Church and State. 

A dead calm followed the whirlwind of 
revolution ; but it was not long before the 
waters again began to stir. The working 



82 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

classes, finding that the change had brought 
them no tangible benefits, lost their enthusiasm 
and broke into strikes. The Pretender, Dom 
Miguel, announced that as Manuel had been 
deposed and was unlikely to return, he held 
himself ready to accept a call to the throne. 
To these anxieties were added others of the 
Government's own making. Their treatment 
of the Church was needlessly provocative, 
and the banishment of the judges who ac- 
quitted the ex- dictator, Franco, on a charge 
of treason recalled the worst days of the 
Monarchy. The press was gagged, and the 
expression of any but Republican opinions 
vigorously repressed. The postponement of 
the elections till June 1911 gave time for 
discontent to accumulate. For the present 
the main strength of the Republic lies in 
the weakness of its opponents. 



CHAPTER IV 

GERMANY AND AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 



The main events in the history of Germany 
during the years following unification were 
the struggle with the Roman Church, the 
rise of a Socialist party, the establishment 
of Protection in 1879, the nationalisation of 
railways, the inauguration of State-aided 
insurance against sickness, accident, inval- 
idity and old age, and the foundation of a 
Colonial Empire. Modestly realising his own 
limitations and the almost superhumah genius 
of his mighty Chancellor, the Emperor William 
devoted the evening of his life to the super- 
vision of his army. It was a fitting close to 
his career that in the year before his death 
a large increase in the forces should be 
sanctioned by the Reichstag after an appeal 
to the country. 

In March 1888 William I died at the age 

of ninety; but his son was already doomed 

83 



84 " HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

when he ascended the throne at the age of 
fifty-eight. The Crown Prince Frederick had 
won fame in the campaigns which made the 
Empire, but since 1871 he had fretted in 
enforced idleness. A disease in the throat, 
which the German doctors pronounced to be 
cancer, appeared early in 1887 ; but the 
operation which might have prolonged the 
sufferer's life was postponed till it was too 
late on the advice of Sir Morell Mackenzie. 
The stricken man passed the winter on the 
Riviera, and when he ascended the throne 
he could no longer articulate. He had only 
ninety-nine days to live ; but they were enough 
to indicate the direction in which his thoughts 
were running. He conferred high decora- 
tions on Jews who had rendered distinguished 
service to the State, and on Virchow, who 
was not only a great scientist but a leader 
of the Radical party. Of greater importance 
was the dismissal of Puttkammer, Minister 
of the Interior, a friend of the Chancellor 
and a pillar of the reaction. Despite such 
flickers of illumination, the reign to which 
Europe had looked forward with hopeful 
eagerness was but a tragic interlude of suffer- 
ing and sorrow. 

The new Emperor, William II, who ascended 
the throne at the age of twenty-nine, had little 
affection for his parents, but was filled with an 
almost idolatrous admiration for his grand- 



GERMANY 85 

father. He had sat at the feet of Bismarck, for 
whom he entertained boundless enthusiasm, 
and his accession was hailed with delight in 
Conservative and military circles. Whereas 
the first proclamation of Frederick had been to 
his people, that of his son was addressed to 
the army. The new ruler, indeed, spared 
no pains to show how little he respected his 
father's memory or his mother's grief. He 
decorated Puttkammer and gave him a seat 
in the Prussian Upper House. He restored 
the name of the New Palace, which his father 
had altered to Friedrichskron. These were 
comparative trifles ; but worse was to follow. 
Dr. Geffcken published passages from the late 
Emperor's diary designed to show that he 
had played a more prominent part in the 
foundation of the Empire than was commonly 
believed. Bismarck denounced the publica- 
tion as a forgery, and the Emperor ordered 
his Chancellor to draw up a report on it. 
The report, though filled with statements 
damaging to his father's memory, was pub- 
lished with the Emperor's sanction ; and 
when the Court acquitted Geffcken of the 
charge of treason, the whole dossier prepared 
by the prosecution was printed. The Chan- 
cellor was paying off old scores ; but for the 
Emperor there was no excuse. 

While William II had no misgivings as to 
his ability to steer the ship of State, Bismarck 



86 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

believed himself to be more than ever indis- 
pensable with a young and inexperienced 
ruler on the throne. Disagreements both on 
foreign and domestic policy quickly occurred. 
The anti-socialist law, passed in 1878 and 
renewed at intervals, was due to expire in 
1890 ; and Bismarck proposed to substitute 
a permanent measure. The Reichstag proved 
hostile, and when a rumour arose that the 
Emperor favoured a milder Bill, it was re- 
jected. In the next place, the Emperor 
objected to the secret treaty with Russia as 
disloyal to Austria. Finally, the Chancellor 
threw cold water on his young master's plan 
to summon an International Congress for the 
discussion of labour problems. The crisis, 
however, did not arise from disagreement on 
policy. The Emperor insisted on entering 
into direct relations with his ministers ; and 
when Bismarck quoted the Cabinet Order of 
1852, by which all communications between 
King and ministers were to be made through 
the Premier, he demanded its repeal. Shortly 
after this controversy the Emperor learned 
that the Chancellor had invited Windthorst, 
the Catholic leader, to his palace, and at 
once sent to inform him that he desired to 
be told when political discussions were to 
take place. Bismarck replied that he could 
not let any one decide his visitors for him. 
Early next morning the Emperor arrived at 



GERMANY 87 

the Chancellor's residence and asked what 
subjects he had discussed with Windthorst. 
Bismarck angrily replied that the conversa- 
tion was private, and that he was willing to 
resign if the Emperor desired. The following 
day was a Sunday, and on the Monday the 
Emperor's secretary brought a demand for his 
resignation. 

William II began to reign in 1888, and to 
govern in 1890, when he dropped the pilot. 
He explained in eloquent utterances that he 
would brook neither competition nor opposi- 
tion. " There is only one master in this 
country, and I am he. I shall suffer no other 
beside me." " I see in the people and the 
land which have descended to me a talent 
entrusted to me by God, which it is my duty 
to increase. Those who will help me I 
heartily welcome; those who oppose me I 
shall dash in pieces." He declared that he 
was responsible for his actions to God and 
his conscience alone. Though by far the 
ablest of the Hohenzollerns since Frederick 
the Great, he was unequal to the part of 
universal arbiter in politics and religion, art 
and literature. His ideals of personal govern- 
ment and divine right were out of date. His 
people laughed at his claims and his eccen- 
tricities, and an audacious Bavarian professor 
compared him to Caligula. The new reign 
witnessed not only the emergence of the 



88 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

Imperial factor but important changes in 
high policy. Bismarck had won for his 
country the hegemony of Europe, and his 
aim was to avoid whatever might endanger 
it. For this reason he clung to Russia, eyen^ 
after the conclusion of the Triple Alliance, 
and gave her a free hand in the Near East. 
William II, on the other hand, entered freely 
into competition with the Tsar for influence 
in Turkey. An even more momentous de- 
parture was soon announced. While Bis- 
marck felt no enthusiasm for a Colonial 
Empire, William announced himself a zealous 
adherent of Imperialism, whose ambition was 
to do for the navy what his grandfather had 
done for the army. With the utterance of 
the famous words, " Our future lies on the 
water," a new chapter of German history 
begins. 

Bismarck's successor, General Caprivi, 
loyally carried out the orders of his imperious 
master ; but his difficulties were enormously 
increased by Parthian shots from Fried- 
richsruh. " I cannot lie down like a 
hibernating bear," cried the fallen hero. 
He sneered at the academic debates of the 
Labour Congress, prophesied revolution when 
the anti-socialist law was allowed to lapse, 
declared the acquisition of Heligoland too 
dearly purchased by the surrender of 
Zanzibar, pronounced the alliance of France 



GERMANY 89 

and Russia the consequence of blundering 
diplomacy, and encouraged opposition to the 
conclusion of commercial treaties. The 
Emperor retaliated by decorating Bismarck's 
enemies, and by persuading the Austrian 
Court to boycott him when he journeyed to 
Vienna for the marriage of his son Herbert. 
The conflict inflicted such damage on the 
Empire that influential mediators came 
forward. In 1893 the Emperor held out an 
olive-branch, which was repulsed ; but in 
1894 a public reconciliation was effected. 
Bismarck was invited to Berlin, and the 
Emperor returned the visit at FriedrichsrulL 
During the last four years of the ex- 
Chancellor's life the semblance of friendliness 
was preserved ; but the events of 1890 were 
never forgiven. 

During Caprivi's tenure of office the army 
was increased in 1890 and again, after an 
appeal to the country, in 1893, the period of 
service being at the same time reduced to 
two years. The income from the royal 
property of the deposed King of Hanover, 
known as the Guelf Fund, which Bismarck 
had employed to control the press, was 
restored to the Duke of Cumberland. But 
the main achievement of the Chancellor was 
the conclusion of commercial treaties with 
Austria, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland in 
1891, and with Russia, after a bitter tariff 



90 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

war, in 1894. The fierce hostility of the 
Agrarians to the Russian treaty made his 
position untenable, and the Emperor dis- 
pensed with his services. 

His successor was Prince Hohenlohe, a 
liberal Catholic, who had been Prime Minister 
of Bavaria before 1870, Ambassador in 
Paris, and Governor of Alsace-Lorraine. His j 
prestige and experience secured him more 
consideration than his predecessor ; but as he o 
was seventy-five years old and cared little for 
power, his influence was limited. His out- 
spoken Memoirs suggest the difficulties he 
experienced in co-operating with his impulsive 
master. 

The lapse of the anti-socialist law and the 
summoning of the Labour Congress in 1890 
had raised hopes of better relations between 
the Crown and the working classes ; but 
the expectation was disappointed. The 
Socialists, who had 3 seats in the Reichstag 
of 1871, 35 in that of 1890, and M in that of 
1893, increased their poll at every election. 
An annual Congress met for the first time 
in 1890, and in 1891 the Erfurt Programme 
was elaborated. The Emperor watched their 
rapid growth with dismay, and spoke bitterly 
of the "traitorous rabble." Disappointed by 
the results of his policy of conciliation he 
determined to revive coercion ; but in 1895 
the Reichstag rejected a measure punishing 



GERMANY 91 

with imprisonment attacks on religion, the 
monarchy, property, and the family. A 
dissolution would have been useless, and 
the Emperor was forced to content himself 
with oratorical denunciations of Socialism. 
For protesting against one of these tirades 
Liebknecht, the leader of the party, was 
imprisoned for treason. The battle continued, 
and on Liebknecht's death Bebel became 
the most formidable critic of the system of 
personal rule. 

The main task of the middle years of the 
reign was to emphasise the role of Germany 
as a World Power by the construction of a 
fleet and the acquisition of new colonies and 
spheres of influence. Heligoland provided a 
convenient naval base at the mouth of the 
Elbe, and the Kiel Canal was completed in 
1895. A few warships were built in the first 
decade of the reign ; but in 1897 a programme 
of construction to be carried out by 1904 
was approved. The increase of the navy 
was justified by the rapid development of 
commerce and the growth of the mercantile 
marine ; but its main purpose was to enable 
the Fatherland to play a leading part in 
Weltpolitik. With the exception of the 
Socialists every party welcomed the entry 
of Germany into the ranks of naval Powers, 
and the Navy League, which enjoyed 
Imperial patronage, obtained an enormous 



92 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 



( 



membership. A new programme was 
authorised in 1900, fixing the strength at 38 
battleships, 14 large cruisers, and 38 small 
cruisers, to be completed in 1917. A law 
of 1906 increased the number of large cruisers 
by 6, and in 1908 the life of battleships was 
shortened from 25 to 20 years, necessitating 
the construction of 4 annually in place of 3 
during the years 1908-11. 

Without waiting for the completion of his 
fleet the Emperor began to assert his power. 
In 1895 he joined France and Russia in 
ordering Japan to disgorge her conquests on 
the Chinese mainland. In 1897 he compelled 
China to lease Kiao-Chou in expiation of 
the murder of German missionaries, and dis- 
patched a squadron under his sailor brother, 
Prince Henry, to take possession of it. In 
1899 he secured a new foothold in the Pacific 
by the purchase of the Caroline Islands from 
Spain. In 1900 he obtained the consent of 
the other Powers to place a German General 
at the head of the international force which 
marched to Pekin. In the Near East, German 
influence increased no less rapidly. While 
Europe shuddered at the Armenian atrocities 
the Emperor ostentatiously displayed his 
friendliness for the Great Assassin. His 
spectacular journey to Syria in 1898 provided 
an opportunity for announcing himself the 
protector of Mohammedans throughout the 



GERMANY 93 

[world, and the concession to a German 
Company of the right to continue the 
AnatoKan railway system to Bagdad and the 
Persian Gulf represented the high-water mark 
of Turkish complaisance. 

Hohenlohe resigned in 1900 and was suc- 
ceeded by Billow, the Foreign Secretary, 
Though his training had been exclusively in 
diplomacy, he displayed considerable skill in 
driving the parliamentary team. His first 
conflict arose in 1902 on the introduction of a 
new tariff, raising the duty on corn and meat 
after the expiration of Caprivi's treaties. The 
parties of the Left, resting on the vote of the 
towns, vigorously opposed the change, which 
was finally carried by closure in a form even 
more favourable to the Agrarian interest than 
on its introduction. The Chancellor declared 
that he desired no better epitaph than that 
he was a friend of the Agrarians ; but the 
unpopularity of the new tariff was shown in 
the election of 1903, when the Socialists 
increased their poll to 8 millions and their 
seats from 58 to 81. 

The second battle was in reference to the 
Colonies. A revolt broke out in German 
South West Africa, which proved unex- 
pectedly difficult to repress. The cost in 
blood and money was continually growing, 
and tales of misconduct increased the depres- 
sion. The Centre, rendered critical by the 



94 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

reports of Catholic missionaries, denounced 
the administration of the local officials, and in 
1905 combined with the Socialists to reject 
the estimates for a colonial railway. The 
Reichstag was dissolved, Biilow declared war 
on the Centre and the Socialists, and Dern- 
burg, the Colonial Minister, opened a campaign 
in the great cities, painting the future of the 
Colonies in glowing colours. The Socialist 
representation fell to 43, though they increased 
their poll by 250,000 ; but the Centre 
returned in undiminished strength. The 
Chancellor appealed to the Conservatives, 
National Liberals, and Radicals to sink their 
differences. A bloc was formed ; but it was 
too artificial to last. Controversial legislation 
was avoided ; but when, in 1909, despite 
the issue of numerous loans, new taxation to 
the extent of 25 millions was necessitated, the 
Conservatives rebelled against the proposed 
death duties. The Chancellor resigned after 
the passage of the Budget in a modified form, 
and was succeeded by Bethmann-Hollweg, an 
experienced official but without knowledge 
of foreign affairs. 

While the occasion of Billow's resignation 
was the revolt of the Conservatives, it was 
widely held that the real cause was different. 
Throughout the reign the Emperor's impulsive 
speeches and telegrams had caused anxiety ; 
and in 1908 an utterance appeared which 



GERMANY 95 

stirred Europe more than any action since the 
message to Kruger in 1896. A long interview 
appeared in the Daily Telegraph, containing 
outspoken declarations on his own and his 
people's feelings in the past and present 
towards England and other countries. When 
the Reichstag met, the party leaders roundly 
declared that such indiscretions must cease. 
The Chancellor communicated something like 
a promise to refrain from personal interven- 
tions in politics, and added that neither he 
nor any future Chancellor could hold office if 
they continued. On the publication of the 
interview he had offered his resignation ; but 
his master had pressed him to retain office, 
at any rate till the new taxes were passed. 
For the next eighteen months the Emperor 
abstained from the expression of his personal 
views. 

Every member of the German federation 
leads a life of its own in addition to sharing 
the fortunes of the Empire. The adoption 
of a common Code in 1900 was dictated by 
practical utility ; but the smaller States are 
always on their guard against encroachments 
by the predominant partner. Even in Prussia 
itself resistance to the royal will is not un- 
known. In 1892 a Bill increasing the influence 
of the clergy in the schools was withdrawn 
in consequence of an irrepressible outburst of 
public opinion. In 1899 a still more damaging 



96 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

blow was struck. The Government proposed 
to construct a canal joining the Rhine and 
the Elbe ; but the Conservatives, believing 
that it would lower the price of corn and 
meat, rejected the Bill despite the threats of 
their ruler. The leaders of the revolt were 
promptly dismissed from their posts at Court 
and in the local administration ; but when the 
Bill was reintroduced in 1901 the hostility- 
was as great as ever, and a second defeat was 
averted by the withdrawal of the measure. 

The most burning question of Prussian 
politics is that of the franchise. The Con- 
stitution of 1850 established indirect election, 
and divided voters into three classes according 
to their income. Thus while the Socialists 
polled by far the largest number of votes, they 
were without representation in the Landtag 
till 1908, when they secured 7 seats out of a 
total of nearly 400. Such a parody of repre- 
sentative government could only be main- 
tained by force ; and colossal demonstrations 
in the great cities have revealed the strength 
of the demand for reform. A Bill introducing 
the ballot but retaining the three-class system 
in a modified form was passed by the Landtag 
in 1910 ; but as it satisfied neither the Right 
nor the Left it was withdrawn. A second 
grave problem is that of the Poles. The 
attempt to Germanise the Polish districts by 
allowing only German in the elementary 



GERMANY 97 

schools has been defeated by the stubborn 
determination of the people to maintain their 
language and by the rapid increase in popula- 
tion. In 1906 popular resentment flared up. 
The children declined to answer questions in 
German, and finally refused to attend school. 
The Government punished the " school 
strikes " by fines, expulsions, and imprison- 
ment ; but the sullen opposition remains. A 
second line of attack began in 1886, when 
Bismarck embarked on an extensive plan of 
colonisation. The policy of subsidised settle- 
ments has been continued at enormous cost 
by his successors, but without effect. Exas- 
perated by failure the Government carried 
an Expropriation Bill in 1908, empowering the 
Land Commission to buy whatever it needed 
at its own price. Despite these tyrannical 
methods the Poles hold more land to-day than 
when the colonisation began. Nowhere has 
the regimentation of a people been more 
systematically pursued, and nowhere has its 
failure been more complete. 

Of the other subject nationalities there is 
less to relate. The Danes in Schleswig are 
too few to resist the Prussian steam-roller ; 
and a treaty with Denmark in 1907 removed 
some of their worst grievances. The repre- 
sentation of Alsace-Lorraine in the Reichstag 
indicates a gradual diminution of hostility, 
and in 1911 its autonomy was extended and 

D 



98 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

the sending of delegates to the Bundesrath 
authorised. The smaller States of the German 
Empire have made steady progress under 
more liberal institutions than those of 

Prussia. 

II 

The expulsion of the House of Hapsburg 
from the German Confederation and from 
Italy in 1866 was followed by far-reaching 
internal changes. Hungarian autonomy was 
revived and parliamentary institutions were 
granted to Austria. For some years the 
German Liberals were in office ; but in 1879 
Taaffe, a friend of Francis Joseph from 
childhood, became Prime Minister and held 
office till 1893. It was his wish no less than 
that of his master to form a Ministry repre- 
senting all races and parties ; and though the 
Germans resented their diminished influence, 
the Government was strengthened by the 
support of the Czechs, who had hitherto 
refused to take their seats in the Reichsrath. 
A Czech University was founded at Prague 
and the Czech language received recognition 
for official purposes, while the support of 
the Polish nobles of Galicia was obtained by j 
allowing them to deal with the Rutheiiian 
minority at their pleasure. Such a system 
could not last for ever. In Bohemia the 
Old Czechs, who represented the nobility, 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 99 

were gradually displaced by the Young 
Czechs, who opposed the Conservative and 
clerical policy of Taaffe, and demanded that 
the Emperor should be crowned King of 
Bohemia, like his predecessors. When Taaffe 
dissolved in 1891, the Young Czechs cap- 
tured every Czech seat. He held on for 
two years; but Bohemia was now in up- 
roar. 

The nationalities continued their bicker- 
ings ; but the main interest was transferred 
to electoral reform. The demand for universal 
suffrage was supported by the Socialists, 
the new anti-Semitic party of Christian 
Socialism, the Young Czechs, and the German 
Nationalists. Taaffe had realised the neces- 
sity of enfranchising the working classes, 
but had been forced to withdraw a far- 
reaching scheme. His successors found the 
task no less thorny, and in 1896 a timid 
measure was passed, adding a fifth class or 
Curia of voters by universal suffrage, in which 
citizens over twenty-four, whether entitled 
to vote in the existing Curiae or not, were 
included. To the new class, which com- 
prised 5 1 million voters, were allotted 72 seats, 
while the remaining 353 members were elected 
by less than 2 million voters. Such a 
half-hearted reform, instead of solving the 
problem, made it certain that it would shortly 
be reopened. 
d2 



100 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

The Chamber elected in 1897 showed that 
the new voters had only increased the number 
and confusion of parties. Fourteen Socialists 
made their appearance, and the Chamber 
included twenty-four distinct groups. Badeni, 
who had passed the Franchise Bill, required a 
majority to renew the decennial arrangement 
with Hungary. To obtain it he bought the 
Czechs by the Language Ordinances, which 
threw Austrian politics into confusion for a 
decade. Proficiency in Czech and German 
was required from virtually every Govern- 
ment official in Bohemia. The decrees only 
went a little beyond those of Taaffe ; but the 
resistance of the Germans was now far more 
vigorous. Behind the equality of language 
they detected approval of an autonomous 
Bohemia in federal relations with other parts 
of Austria. Their obstruction brought the 
parliamentary machine to a standstill, and 
Badeni resigned. Two short-lived Ministries 
followed, the Budgets were promulgated by 
decree, and the Compromise with Hungary 
was provisionally adopted. When a third 
Ministry dropped the Badeni decrees, the 
Czechs borrowed the obstructionist tactics 
of their opponents. The confusion suggested 
new methods to the Emperor, who in 1900 
chose Korber, an experienced official, to con- 
ciliate the racial factions by a programme 
of canals and railways. But the Czechs 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 101 

continued to obstruct, and a new element 
of discord was introduced after the election 
of 1901 by the appearance of a powerful Pan- 
German and Los von Rom party. 

After an heroic struggle Korber was forced 
to resign in 1904. By this time it was obvious 
that a mitigation of the racial conflict was 
impossible without an extension of the 
franchise. Early in 1906 Gautsch, his suc- 
cessor, introduced a Bill which became law 
early in 1907. The five classes were swept away, 
and the franchise was granted to men over 
twenty-four with a residential qualification of 
one year. The constituencies were made 
as nearly as possible racially homogeneous. 
The Germans obtained a larger and the 
Czechs and the Ruthenians a smaller number 
of their seats than their numbers warranted ; 
but such inequalities were tolerated for the 
sake of universal franchise. The Reform Bill 
carried with it two great changes. In the first 
place, the Chamber was no longer divided 
almost exclusively on racial lines. The 
two strongest parties, the Christian Socialists 
and the Social Democrats, represented 
interests independent of racial frontiers, 
while the Pan-Germans almost disappeared. 
In the second place, the Emperor was com- 
pelled to buy the assent of the Upper House 
to the measure by surrendering his right to 
override opposition by an unlimited creation 



102 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

of peers. Universal suffrage has on the whole 
justified the expectations of the Emperor. 
The feud of Germans and Czechs in Bohemia, 
of Poles and Ruthenians in Galicia, and of 
Germans and Italians in Tyrol continues ; 
but the sentiment of solidarity grows with 
every year of the reign of Francis Joseph, 
and the apprehension that the polyglot 
Empire will go to pieces on the accession of 
his nephew has disappeared. 

Hungary was punished for its revolt in 
1848 by twenty years of despotic rule from 
Vienna ; but the disasters of 1866 deter- 
mined the Emperor to seek a reconciliation. 
Full autonomy was restored, and Francis 
Joseph was crowned King at Buda-Pesth. 
The two halves of the Dual Monarchy were 
connected by their common ruler, by common 
Ministers of Foreign Affairs, War, and Finance, 
and by the Delegations which meet alter- 
nately in the two capitals. Though Kossuth 
stood aloof and remained in voluntary exile, 
the majority of Hungarians gladly accepted 
an arrangement which not only restored 
their national life but gave them an equal 
share in controlling the destinies of the joint 
State. 

With the retirement of Deak and Andrassy 
their party crumbled to pieces, and in 1875 
Coloman Tisza, the leader of the Left, be- 
came Premier, and remained the virtual 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 103 

Dictator of Hungary for fifteen years. An 
important change in the Constitution was 
effected in 1885. The Great Nobles had 
for centuries possessed the right to attend 
ParHament in person, though in modern 
times most of them seldom appeared. Such 
a Chamber was clearly doomed. The right 
of hereditary peers to a seat in the Table of 
Magnates was limited to members who paid 
£250 a year in land taxes. This drastic step 
reduced the hereditary members from about 
800 to 250. At the same time life members, 
high officials, and representatives of the 
Churches were introduced. Despite these 
changes the Magyar landed aristocracy 
remains supreme in the Upper Chamber. 

Tisza's governing principle was to in- 
crease the power of the Magyars in the 
State. Deak and Eotvos had desired to 
assimilate the non- Magyar races by the 
attraction of a superior culture, and guar- 
anteed them certain rights by the Law of 
Nationalities of 1868. Cynically disregard- 
ing their charter, Tisza made Magyar the 
sole medium of instruction in State secondary 
schools, closed the schools of other races, and 
declared that there was "no Slovak nation." 
The high franchise excluded the minor races 
from a share in power, and ruthless pressure 
was exerted by the Government at elections. 
Literary and religious no less than political 



104 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

movements among Slovaks and Roumanians 
were suppressed, and constant friction arose 
with Croatia, despite its partial autonomy. 

Tisza fell in 1890, and in 1892 Wekerle, 
the leader of the Extreme Left, became 
Premier. His accession to office was the 
signal for fierce political conflict. Mixed 
marriages were frequent ; and the law de- 
clared that the children were to be brought 
up in the communion of the parent whose 
sex they inherited. The priests insisted on 
baptizing all the children of mixed marriages 
and entering their names as Catholics in 
the parish register. To meet this encroach- 
ment registration was taken out of their 
hands, and Wekerle finally determined to 
introduce compulsory civil marriage. The 
Bill passed the Lower House with a large 
majority, but was rejected by the Magnates, 
most of whom were Catholics. The Lower 
House having again passed it, Wekerle 
begged the King to create peers. Francis 
Joseph, who disliked the measure, refused, 
whereon Wekerle resigned. No one, how- 
ever, was able to form a Ministry, and in 
ten days he was recalled. The Bill was 
accepted, and the predominance of the Lower 
House over the Magnates and the Crown 
was established. Wekerle's successor, Banffy, 
carried bills through the Lower House sanc- 
tioning the Jewish religion and establishing 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 105 

freedom of worship, which were in turn 
rejected or mutilated by the Magnates ; 
but when they were sent up a second time 
the Peers surrendered. 

The Compromise of 1867 had given Hun- 
gary an equal position in the Dual Monarchy ; 
but as she became stronger the demand 
for greater independence arose. In 1889 
" The Imperial Army " became " The Im- 
perial and Royal Army." When the Com- 
promise fell to be renewed in 1897 Hungary 
obtained an increased influence over the 
joint Bank and a larger share of the common 
customs receipt ; but Banffy agreed that 
the new arrangements should remain in 
force till they were cancelled by legislation. 
The Kossuthist party, who desired a merely 
personal Union, protested against the con- 
cession, and Banffy fell. 

The tendency towards greater independence 
now manifested itself even more strongly. 
The Kossuthists claimed a national army, 
while the Emperor-King stood immovably 
for an undivided force. After controversies 
which brought two Ministries to the ground, 
Stephen Tisza, the son of the famous 
Minister, took office with authority to grant 
certain concessions. Hungarian flags and 
banners were to be employed, and the com- 
mand of Hungarian regiments to be en- 
trusted exclusively to Hungarian officers 



106 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

but German was to remain the common 
language for the words of command. The 
Opposition was dissatisfied, and the Ministry 
was weakened by the formidable hostility 
of Apponyi, who left the Liberal party 
when Tisza took office, and of Julius Andrassy, 
the son of Deak's colleague. An attempt 
to alter the rules of the House led to violent 
scenes ; and when Parliament was dis- 
solved in 1905 Tisza was routed, and the 
parties of Independence, which rejected or 
disliked the Compromise of 1867, obtained 
a sweeping victory. The Coalition demanded 
concessions which the King refused to grant ; 
and after months of negotiation Fejervary, 
an intimate friend of the King, took office 
without a majority. The Opposition, con- 
scious of their strength, stood firm. It was 
at this moment and in order to break their 
serried ranks that Kristoffy, the Minister 
of the Interior, proposed an extension of the 
suffrage. A compromise was at last reached. 
Wekerle took office, supported by Francis 
Kossuth, the son of the hero, Apponyi and 
Andrassy, and changes in the army were 
postponed till universal suffrage had been 
introduced. 

The rule of the Coalition, though restoring 
constitutional government, brought little satis- 
faction to the country. The Croats declared 
that the promises of better treatment had 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 107 

not been fulfilled, and the Croatian Constitu- 
tion was suspended. The Ministry proposed 
to neutralise the effects of universal suffrage 
qn Magyar domination by plural voting and 
the gerrymandering of electoral divisions. 
Such a scheme was no honest redemption of 
the pledge with which they had taken office. 
The Ministry was discredited by corruption, 
feuds broke out between its groups, and in 
1910 it resigned. Hedervary, a henchman 
of the King, took office, dissolved Parliament, 
and by unblushing pressure routed the 
Coalition. The separatist policy has received 
a temporary check ; but no one can foretell 
the future of Hungarian parties. Universal 
suffrage and the ballot will introduce many 
new elements into the Chamber, and direct 
attention to the needs and sufferings of the 
Nationalities. 

Alone of the Great Powers, Austria-Hungary 
possesses no colonies ; but Bosnia and Her- 
zegovina, the administration of which was 
entrusted to the Dual Monarchy by the Berlin 
Treaty of 1878, have been governed through 
a common Finance Minister. The efforts of 
Kallay, a Hungarian, who ruled for twenty 
years, established order and introduced the 
material side of civilisation into the Turkish 
provinces. After the annexation in 1908 a 
Constitution was granted ; but autonomy is 
still far off. The scheme of a Southern Slav 



108 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

State, including Croatia, Dalmatia, and the 
two provinces, and forming with Austria and 
Hungary a federal Empire, has some ad- 
herents ; but its adoption might open up 
more problems than it would solv^e. 



CHAPTER V 

EASTERN EUROPE 



When Alexander III ascended the Russian 
throne in 1881 he was urged to issue the 
Ukase for a consultative Assembly of Notables 
which Alexander II had signed on the morning 
of his assassination. But the new Tsar pre- 
ferred the principles of Pobedonostseff, Pro- 
curator of the Holy Synod, and of Katkoff, 
editor of the Moscow Gazette^ who taught 
that autocracy and orthodoxy alone could 
save Russia from the scepticism and anarchy 
of Western Europe. The Tsar, whose per- 
sonal character was exemplary, lacked his 
father's quick intelligence and personal charm, 
and inherited none of the generous impulses 
which had led to the emancipation of the 
serfs and the establishment of Zemstvos, or 
county councils. The Court lived in impene- 
trable seclusion, and the government was 
carried on by a corrupt and reactionary 
bureaucracy. The Nihilists were executed or 

log 



110 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

banished, and in 1888 the American traveller; 
Kennan, revealed to the world the horrors 
of the Siberian prisons. The press was 
muzzled, the privileges of University students 
curtailed, and the power of the Zemstvos 
severely limited. Russia was in the grip of 
a deadly obscurantism, and the Intelligentia 
either threw themselves into Socialism or 
looked on in dumb despair. Homogeneity 
was sought at all costs. The Protestant 
Stundists of the South were mercilessly 
harried ; but no class or race suffered so 
much as the Jews, who were confined to the 
towns of the West, excluded from a share in 
local government, partially debarred from 
access to school, and forbidden to hold 
property outside the towns or engage in agri- 
culture. It is more than a coincidence that 
it was during this reign that Tolstoi began 
to preach the wickedness of all coercion. 
It was also a time of acute and growing 
suffering. In 1891-3 half the country was 
faced with starvation. The reign of Alex- 
ander III was a period of national paralysis, 
and his only service to his country was the 
maintenance of peace. 

The accession of Nicholas II in 1894 at the 
age of twenty-six aroused hopes of a change of 
system. Several Zemstvos begged that their 
representatives might be invited to assist in 
the drafting of laws ; but the reply to these 



RUSSIA 111 

loyal counsels was a cruel disappointment. 
The Tsar declared his intention of maintaining 
the principles of autocracy inviolate, and 
dismissed the claims to share in the administra- 
tion as " senseless dreams." Like his father 
he was a pupil of Pobedonostseff, and the 
world learned with dismay that the numbing 
influence of the Procurator was to dominate 
the new reign as it had dominated the old. 
Yet forces were at work which in time were 
bound to ruffle the stagnant waters. In 1892 
Witte had become Minister of Finance. His 
ambition was to develop, it might almost 
be said to create, Russian industry. He 
improved credit by establishing a fixed value 
for the rouble and increasing the gold reserve. 
He extended State monopolies, buying up 
private railways and making new State lines. 
A gigantic tariff secured the home market to 
manufacturers. In 1894 he established a 
Government monopoly of the sale of spirits. 
He boasted that he had altered every tax 
that he found ; but his policy of raising 
revenue by indirect taxation increased the 
biu'den of the poor. Some relief was found 
when the construction of the Siberian rail- 
way facilitated migration across the Ural 
mountains. 

Witte approached his work rather from 
the standpoint of a man of business than 
a politician. Alarmed by the discovery that 



112 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

less grain was being sown and that the con- 
sumption of bread was decHning, he estab- 
lished a Commission in 1902 to assist agri- 
culture, which appointed Committees repre- 
senting the localities. Many of these bodies 
went beyond the original purpose of their 
institution, and demanded freedom of the 
press and representative institutions. They 
were condemned by Pobedonostseff, and in 
1903 Witte was dismissed from the Ministry 
of Finance after eleven years of memorable 
endeavour. The Tsar was thoroughly scared 
by the spread of Socialism, the strikes among 
the rapidly increasing factory workers, the 
unrest in the Universities, and the growing 
boldness of the press. Though Witte was 
not a Liberal, he was too conscious of the 
faults of autocratic government to be en- 
trusted with its defence. On his fall Plehve, 
the Minister of the Interior, became Dictator 
of Russia. The first of a new series of attacks 
on the Jews, condoned if not originated by 
the Government, occurred in 1903 at Kis- 
hineff. 

The Japanese War overthrew the system 
of Plehve as the Crimean War had destroyed 
the system of Nicholas I. Indignation was 
aroused by the discovery of unblushing 
peculation and shameful incompetence both 
at the base and the front. Even the co- 
operation of the Zemstvos in the organisation 



i 



RUSSIA 118 

of relief was rebuked by the Minister, and 
his assassination, in July 1904, was hailed 
with delight. After deliberating for a month 
the Tsar appointed Prince Mirski, one of 
the most enlightened administrators in the 
Empire. The new Minister's first step was 
to ask for the confidence of the public. 
A Conference of members of Zemstvos at 
St. Petersburg showed itself at once moderate 
and determined. They demanded inviola- 
bility of the person, freedom of conscience, 
speech, meeting, association, and instruction, 
the abolition of exceptional laws, amnesty for 
political prisoners, and an elected national 
assembly, which the majority desired to 
possess legislative powers and which all 
agreed should control finance. The Court 
was torn asunder by conflicting counsels. 
An edict promising a wider franchise and 
larger powers for local bodies was followed 
by a denunciation of the claims of the 
reformers as incompatible with the funda- 
mental laws of the country. A strict censor- 
ship was revived, and the tide of reform 
began to ebb. 

In the early days of 1905 an event occurred 
which opened a deep chasm between the 
Sovereign and the reformers. While a 
salute was being fired a shot fell close to the 
Tsar. He left the capital, and when, three 
days later, Father Gapon headed a gigantic 



114 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

deputation of strikers and their families, the 
unarmed crowds were shot down by troops. 
Mirski was dismissed, General Trepoff became 
Dictator of St. Petersburg, and Bloody- 
Sunday was followed by a fierce struggle 
throughout the country. The peasantry 
attacked the manor-houses, police officers 
were assassinated by scores, and the Tsar's 
uncle, the Grand Duke Serge, was murdered 
in Moscow. The wiser heads at Court 
recognised that the situation called for con- 
cessions, and in March the Tsar declared 
his intention of summoning an elective 
assembly. Reforms affecting the Dissenters, 
the Jews, and the Nationalities were pro- 
mulgated, and the censorship of the press 
once more lapsed. A great Congress of 
Zemstvo leaders at Moscow demanded the 
immediate convocation of a national assembly. 
In August a decree announced the establish- 
ment of a consultative Duma, chosen by 
indirect election. In October the Tsar felt 
himself compelled to dismiss Pobedonostseff 
and Trepoff, and to recall Witte with the 
position of a Prime Minister. The first 
fruits of the change appeared in the Manifesto 
of October 80th, which promised freedom of 
conscience, speech, meeting, and association, 
a wide franchise, a veto on legislation, and 
effective control over the acts of officials. 
The Manifesto satisfied the Conservative 



RUSSIA 115 

reformers who followed Shipoff, the head of 
the Moscow Zemstvo, and who were hence- 
forth known as Octobrists. 

On his return to office Witte invited 
Shipoff to join the Ministry. Shipoff con- 
sented on condition that the Constitutional 
Democrats, popularly known as the Cadets, 
who followed Professor Miliukoff, were 
included. Witte was willing, but the demands 
of the Cadets threatened the prerogatives of 
the Tsar. Another storm now burst over 
the land. Mutinies broke out in the army 
and the fleet, and a revolt in Moscow was 
savagely repressed. Again the Govern- 
ment spoke with two voices. Durnovo, the 
Minister of the Interior, encouraged brutal 
reprisals, and incitements to riot were 
printed in the Government offices and 
circulated by the fanatical Union of the 
Russian People. From the other camp Witte 
issued a decree conceding something like 
universal suffrage. When the elections took 
place in the spring of 1906 the reformers 
obtained an overwhelming majority. The 
largest party in the Duma was that of the 
Cadets. The newly formed Labour Group, 
representing the peasantry, came next, and 
the Octobrists only numbered about fifty. 
The Extreme Right was scarcely represented. 
Witte was succeeded in the Premiership by 
Goremykin ; but the leading spirit of the 



116 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

new Ministry was Stolypin, who had won 
his spurs in provincial administration. 

In reply to the Speech from the Throne 
the Duma boldly demanded control over the 
executive. It then carried a vote of censure 
on the Ministry, sent a Commission to report 
on the latest pogrom, and introduced a Land 
Bill incorporating the Labour party's principle 
of expropriation. The Tsar again invited 
the leader of the Octobrists to form a Ministry, 
and Shipoff again insisted on including the 
Cadets. But the Cadets refused to join a 
Coalition Ministry. It was now a choice 
between Miliukofi and a dissolution. The 
Tsar chose the latter, appointed Stolypin 
Premier, and broke up the Duma after a 
session of three months. The Cadets and 
Labour leaders hurried across the Finnish 
frontier to Viborg, whence they issued a 
Manifesto calling on the nation neither to 
pay taxes nor grant recruits till the Duma 
was restored. 

The Viborg Manifesto was a blunder, and 
Stolypin set to work with great energy to 
strengthen the position of the Government. 
Field courts-martial were instituted to punish 
terrorists and suspects. Tens of thousands 
were banished without trial, and the prisons 
were crowded. Yet, despite wholesale in- 
timidation, the elections to the second Duma, 
held early in 1907, gave almost the same 



RUSSIA 117 

result as in the first. The Cadets again 
dominated the assembly ; but this time their 
main endeavour was to avoid a pretext for 
dissolution. The defensive policy succeeded 
no better than the offensive. The Socialists 
were charged with conspiracy, and Stolypin 
demanded their exclusion. The Duma 
appointed a Committee to examine the 
evidence ; but without waiting for the report 
the Government dissolved the assembly. 

Reaction now ruled unchecked. The 
Socialists were tried behind closed doors 
and sent to Siberia. The signatories of 
the Viborg Manifesto were sentenced to im- 
prisonment. Hundreds were executed for 
offences committed two or three years before, 
and scoundrels convicted of organising 
pogroms were pardoned by the Tsar. On 
the other side, murders of officials and police 
were of constant occurrence. A restricted 
franchise had been announced after the dis- 
solution of the second Duma, and the elections 
for the third were held in the autumn. The 
new House was chiefly composed of land- 
owners. The largest party was the Octo- 
brists, whose leader, Guchkoff, dominated 
the third Duma as Miliukoff had dominated 
its predecessors. Stolypin had at last pro- 
cured the tame assembly that he sought ; 
but even the third Duma was better than 
none. The record crops of 1909 and 1910 



118 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

at last balanced the budget and gave new 
confidence to agriculture. The main legisla- 
tive effort of Stolypin has been to enable 
the peasantry to become owners of their 
land. In 1906 the Premier issued decrees, 
which after prolonged discussion were em- 
bodied in a statute in 1910. The law gives 
the peasant the right to claim his holding in 
individual possession and in a single plot, and 
empowers the Commune to substitute private 
for communal ownership. The ultimate effect 
of this far-reaching change, which shatters 
the structure of rural life, it is too early to 
predict. But the Mir has received its death- 
blow. 

In addition to the internal movement for 
reform the Government has been increasingly 
occupied with the outlying nationalities. 
On the transference of Finland from Sweden 
in 1809 Alexander I solemnly guaranteed 
its constitutional rights, which have been 
confirmed by his successors. Affairs of State 
were controlled by the Diet and Senate. The 
conditions of military service were light, and 
the army remained within the limits of the 
country. While Russia was sunk in bar- 
barism and misery, Finland presented a 
spectacle of liberty, culture, and prosperity. 
Towards the end of the reign of Alexander III 
encroachments began to be made ; and with 
the appointment of Bobrikoff as Governor- 



RUSSIA 119 

General in 1898 a systematic attack began. 
In 1899 the Diet was invited to make Finland 
a military district of Russia. The Finns, 
while agreeing to increase the army, re- 
jected the proposal to merge it ; but the 
change was none the less carried through 
by Kuropatkin, the Minister of War. In 
the same year it was announced that Finnish 
Bills need only be submitted to the Diet if 
they concerned Finland alone. The postal 
system was amalgamated with that of Russia, 
the censorship was tightened, and Russian 
police were introduced. These steps were at 
first met by passive resistance ; but in 1904 
Bobrikoff was assassinated. When a national 
strike broke out in 1905 the Tsar promised 
to restore Finnish liberties and to grant 
universal suffrage. The new Diet met in 
1907, but was dissolved in 1908. Stolypin 
issued an ordinance transferring the control 
of all matters which concerned the whole 
Empire to the Russian Ministry and abrogat- 
ing the right of the Secretary for Finland to 
report to the Tsar. By these and further 
measures passed in 1910 the independence of 
the Grand Duchy has been imperilled. Finns 
and Swedes, Conservatives and Socialists, are 
united in defence of constitutional rights 
which have been pronounced indefeasible by 
the leading jurists of Europe. 

The attack on Polish autonomy began 



120 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

after the insurrection of 1863, and the whole 
country was ruthlessly Russianised. Social- 
ism arose with the great industrial develop- 
ment of the last two decades of the century, 
and for a time there was talk of an armed 
rising ; but from 1901 the leading parties 
have combined in an attempt to obtain such 
a measure of autonomy as Galicia has 
long enjoyed. In the first two Dumas the 
Poles worked with the Cadets and the Labour 
group. But though reformers of all schools 
urged the importance of a contented Poland, 
pacification is still far off. The Baltic pro- 
vinces have been subjected in like m.anner 
to the steam-roller policy. In 1885 Russian 
became the official language. The names of 
places were changed, German has been for- 
bidden in the schools and in the University 
of Dorpat, Lutheranism has been frowned 
on, local self-government swept away, and 
the press placed under Russian censorship. 
Yet concerted opposition was impossible, 
as the nobles and commercial class are 
German, while the peasantry are Letts. 
When the years of confusion began in 1905, 
the Letts struck at the German landowners 
no less than at the Russian Government ; 
but the movement was drowned in blood. 
Nicholas has proved himself as incompetent 
to conciliate the outlying races as to content 
his Russian subjects. 



THE NEAR EAST 121 



II 



The Treaty of Berlin, while diminishing the 
possessions of the Sultan in the Balkan 
peninsula, left abundant material for future 
disturbance ; and the history of the years 
that have followed is the record of the attempts 
of his Christian subjects to complete their 
emancipation. The first step was taken in 
1885. Though the Treaty of San Stefano 
had given Bulgaria the major part of Mace- 
donia, the Berlin Congress confined her to 
the north of the Balkan Mountains, and re- 
placed Eastern Roumelia under the Sultan, 
endowing it with a Constitution and a 
Governor-General. But the desire for union 
was too strong for treaties. The Governor- 
General was seized, and Prince Alexander 
of Battenberg marched south to Philippopolis. 
The Sultan loudly protested, and the Tsar 
recalled his officers ; but when Salisbury 
approved the union the danger of war passed 
away. The bloodless triumph of Bulgaria 
whetted the appetite of Servia. Prince 
Milan, of the house of Obrenovich, assumed 
the royal title in 1882 ; but the King was 
unpopular, while the Karageorgevich Pre- 
tender was waiting his opportunity. In the 
hope of strengthening his throne, Milan 
declared war against Bulgaria. The Bul- 
garian army was weakened by the with- 



122 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

drawal of its Russian officers ; but Alexander 
led his troops to victory at Slivnitsa. When 
the road to Belgrade lay open, Austria 
stopped his advance by an ultimatum. The 
struggle was over in a fortnight. 

Bulgaria had won a province and a battle ; 
but her ruler paid dearly for his triumphs. 
Some pro-Russian officers forced their way 
into the palace at night, compelled the Prince 
to abdicate and hurried him over the bor- 
der into Russian territory. A Provisional 
Government was formed ; but Stambuloff, 
the leader of the anti-Russian army, appealed 
to national sentiment, dissolved the Govern- 
ment, and invited the Prince to return. A 
fortnight later Alexander, who had been 
released by order of the Tsar, re-entered Sofia ; 
but he had lost his nerve. He telegraphed a 
submissive message to St. Petersburg, and, on 
the arrival of an unfriendly reply, abdicated 
and left the country for ever. For six months 
the throne was in the market ; and when 
Ferdinand, a younger son of the Prince of 
Saxe-Coburg and a grandson of Louis Philippe, 
was chosen, the Tsar refused to recognise him. 
The new Prince, though lacking the military 
instincts and popular gifts of his predecessor, 
was an able diplomatist ; but the real ruler of 
Bulgaria was Stambuloff, the most command- 
ing personality that the young Balkan States 
have produced. Though his poHcy was gener- 



THE NEAR EAST 123 

ally supported by the country, the Prince 
regarded it with less favour^ His marriage 
in 1893 and the birth of an heir increased his 
desire for Russian recognition. Stambuloff 
was forced to resign, and in 1895 he was 
murdered in the streets of Sofia. In 1896 
the baby Prince Boris was converted to the 
Greek Church, and Ferdinand was recognised 
at St. Petersburg. 

While Bulgaria was growing in strength and 
prosperity, Servia was condemned to v/itness 
a series of unedifying quarrels in the royal 
family. The King and Queen had married 
for love as boy and girl ; but Milan's affections 
were quickly transferred to other ladies. 
Further, the King leaned to Austria, while 
Natalie was a Russian. Milan obtained a 
divorce in 1889, and immediately afterwards 
abdicated in favour of his only son, Alexander, 
a lad of thirteen. Four years later the 
young King suddenly proclaimed himself of 
age, and abolished the democratic constitution 
granted by his father in 1889. Though Milan 
returned to Belgrade as Commander-in-Chief 
and Natalie occasionally visited her son, 
Alexander followed his own counsel, and in 
1900 married Draga Mashin, a wom.an of 
humble birth and doubtful character. No 
children were born, and the Queen was sus- 
pected of plotting to secm^e the succession 
for one of her brothers. To stem the tide of 



124 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

discontent the King granted a more liberal 
Constitution in 1901, but in 1903 he withdrew 
it. Two months later the royal couple were 
brutally murdered in their palace by officers led 
by Colonel Mashin, brother of Draga's first 
husband. As Milan had died in 1901 and the 
direct Obrenovich line was extinct, Peter 
Karageorgevich, who had spent his life in 
exile, ascended the throne without opposition. 
The new King was boycotted by most of the 
Powers till 1906, when the chief murderers 
retired. Commerce was gravely prejudiced 
by a tariff war with Austria, and the Crown 
Prince George kept the country in a ferment 
till he was persuaded to resign the succession. 
For several years after the Treaty of Berlin 
the career of Turkey was uneventful. Abdul 
Hamid had gathered the reins of government 
into his own hand, obscurantism brooded 
over the land, and the finances sank into ever 
deeper confusion. The chief sufferers were 
the Christians of Asia Minor and Macedonia. 
The Armenians had petitioned the Congress of 
Berlin for a Christian Governor, but had 
obtained nothing more than a promise of 
reforms. The reforms remained a dead 
letter, and in 1894 the savage Kurds, aided 
by Turkish troops, butchered thousands of all 
ages. The Powers compelled the Sultan to 
grant a Commission of Inquiry, and presented 
a scheme of reform which was readily accepted. 



THE NEAR EAST 125 

While these futile proceedings were taking 
place, massacres broke out again in the 
autumn of 1895. In the following year a 
band of desperate Armenians seized the 
Ottoman Bank in Constantinople. The 
Sultan now threw aside all concealment, and 
for two days they were slaughtered by 
thousands in the streets of the capital. A 
shudder ran through Europe ; but the Powers 
were disunited, and the Great Assassin 
remained unpunished. 

Meanwhile attention was attracted to 
another part of the Sultan's dominions. The 
Constitution granted to Crete in 1868 had been 
supplemented by the Pact of Halepa in 1878, 
The new Charter worked fairly well under Greek 
Governors till 1889, when a revolt caused the 
Sultan to limit the powers of the Assembly 
and to appoint a Mussulman. Disturbances 
continued, and in 1895 a Christian Governor 
was again selected. The Mussulman minority 
showed their resentment by attacks on the 
Christians. In February 1897 the Christians 
proclaimed union with Greece, and Colonel 
Vassos was sent with a force to occupy the 
island in the King's name. The Powers in 
vain ordered Greece to withdraw her troops. 
The admirals occupied Canea, and when the 
insurgents attacked the Turkish troops com- 
pelled them to desist by a bombardment. 
Though King George had no desire for a 



126 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

conflict, armed bands crossed the northern 1 
frontier, and Turkey at once declared war. 
The Greek army was utterly unprepared and 
badly led, while the Turks had been drilled 
by German instructors. The Greek fleet 
displayed a masterly inactivity, and when the 
troops of the Crown Prince fled from Larissa, 
the Athenian populace threatened the palace. 
The Powers intervened, an armistice was 
arranged, and the troops returned from Crete. 
The treaty of peace restored Thessaly to 
Greece with the exception of some strategic 
positions, but imposed an indemnity of four 
millions with European control of her debt. 

Though Greece was ignominiously defeated 
Turkish rule in Crete was not restored. In 
1898 a wholesale massacre of Christians 
occurred, British subjects were attacked in 
the harbour of Candia and the vice-consul 
was murdered. The British admiral at once 
bombarded the town, and insisted on the 
removal of the Turkish troops. The Sultan 
yielded, and in a few weeks a solitary Turkish 
flag betokened his suzerainty. Prince George 
of Greece was appointed for three years as 
High Commissioner of the Powers, a con- 
stitution was drav/n up, and for some years 
the island enjoyed peace. In 1904 the 
Christians began to quarrel among them- 
selves, and Venezelos, the leader of the 
Opposition, took to the mountains and pro- 



THE NEAR EAST 127 

claimed union with Greece. The winter 
cold compelled him to surrender, but in 
1906 Prince George resigned his post in 
disgust, his place being taken by Zaimis, 
an experienced Greek politician. 

After the loss of Crete the Sultan was 
confronted by a still more difficult problem 
in Macedonia, which, like Armenia, had 
never obtained the reforms guaranteed by 
the Treaty of Berlin. The sorely tried 
Christians looked to the surrounding States 
for sympathy and support. Greece, Bul- 
garia, and Servia responded by a vigorous 
racial propaganda, while Roumania interested 
herself in the Vlachs. The feuds were com- 
plicated by difference of religious allegiance. 
For centuries the Balkan Christians had 
looked to the Greek Patriarch at Constanti- 
nople ; but in 1870 the Sultan had created 
a Bulgarian Exarch, and Patriarchists and 
Exarchists have ever since fought the battle 
of Greek and Bulgarian claims in Mace- 
donia. 

In 1899 the Macedonian Committee at 
Sofia appealed to the Powers to create an 
autonomous Macedonia under a Bulgarian 
Governor-General, and shortly after Bulgarian 
bands crossed the frontier. Greece and 
Servia followed suit, and the ravages of 
roving bands were added to the torments of 
Turkish misrule. Austria and Russia drew 



128 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

up a scheme of reform in February 1903, 
providing for an Inspector-General and tlie 
reorganisation of the gendarmerie by foreign 
officers. The Sultan accepted the scheme ; 
but the disorder increased, and the Bulgarian 
bands organised a fruitless insurrection. In 
the autumn the Emperors drew up a re- 
vised edition of their programme. The two 
Powers attached Civil Agents to Hilmi, the 
Inspector - General, the gendarmerie y^sls 
placed under the command of an Italian 
General, and the greater part of Macedonia 
was divided up into sections under the super- 
vision of officers of all the Great Powers 
except Germany. But the elaborate machin- 
ery was useless, as the foreign officials and 
officers possessed no executive power. In 
1905 the Sultan was compelled by a naval 
demonstration to permit the establishment 
of a Financial Commission ; but the ravages 
of the bands continued. 

In July 1908 the situation in the Near 
East suddenly underwent a dramatic trans- 
formation. The Young Turks, who had 
long preached reform from London and 
Paris, had been recently working at terrible 
risk among the troops. On the one hand, 
they pointed to the intolerable corruption 
and tyranny of the Sultan's regime ; on 
the other, they declared that the anarchy 
of Macedonia must inevitably lead to further 



THE NEAR EAST 129 

intervention, culminating in the partition 
of Turkey. The propaganda had been 
carried far and wide before the Sultan 
heard of it ; and when he prepared to 
strike the leaders proclaimed the Constitu- 
tion of 1876 and threatened to march on 
Constantinople. The Sultan yielded in panic, 
the warring races and churches joined in 
celebrating the downfall of their common 
enemy, and a Parliament modelled on that 
of Midhat met in the autumn. 

The honeymoon was brief, and the first 
shock came from abroad. In October, Prince 
Ferdinand of Bulgaria threw off the over- 
lordship of Turkey, and Austria -Hungary 
annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina. The 
Young Turks, indignant though they v/ere, 
bowed to the inevitable and accepted a 
financial indemnity from both Powers. A 
more serious danger revealed itself during 
the winter in divisions among the enemies 
of the old regime. The Committee of Union 
and Progress, which had organised the re- 
volution and directed the new Government 
from Salonika, irritated the nationalities by 
a rigorous policy of centralisation. The 
quarrels of the reformers were the Sultan's 
opportunity. In April 1909 a revolution 
broke out in Constantinople, and the Young 
Turks fled for their lives. But the Mace- 
donian troops remained loyal to the Con- 

E 



130 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

stitution, and within a fortnight Shevket 
Pasha fought his way into the capital. Abdul 
Hamid was deposed, and his brother was 
brought forth from his gilded cage to fill the 
Ottoman throne. The victory of the Young 
Turks was decisive ; but the warning was 
thrown away. Large sums were spent on 
the army and navy, the inhabitants of 
Macedonia roughly disarmed, and Albania 
goaded into revolt. The authors of a hideous 
massacre of Armenians at Adana remained 
virtually unpunished. Though they have 
proved themselves more efficient rulers than 
Abdul Hamid, the Young Turks have dis- 
appointed the hopes once inspired by their 
bravery and moderation. Their ideal is 
rather that of a highly centralised military 
State than a reforming regime inviting the 
co-operation of diverse creeds and races. 

When Ferdinand and Francis Joseph tore 
up the Treaty of Berlin, Crete followed suit 
by proclaiming union with Greece. Though 
King George refused to respond, he earned 
no gratitude at Constantinople. A boycott 
of Greek goods was organised, and Turkish 
chauvinism brought the countries to the 
verge of war. The failure to extract advan- 
tages for Greece led to a movement foi 
national reorganisation, headed by the army 
For months the dynasty was in danger anc 
Athens was dominated by the Military League 



; 



THE NEAR EAST 131 

which only dissolved on the meeting of a 
National Assembly at the end of 1910. The 
arrival of Venezelos from Crete has given 
Greece the guidance of the first strong and 
statesmanlike hand she has felt since the 
death of Tricoupis. 

Happy are the Balkan States that have 
no history. Roumania has made progress 
under her Hohenzollern ruler, King Charles, 
and his gifted wife, Carmen Sylva, interrupted 
only by outbursts of agrarian discontent. 
Montenegro, the home of warriors, can also 
look back on a generation of unbroken peace 
under the patriarchal sway of Nicholas, who 
granted parliamentary institutions in 1905 
and celebrated the jubilee of his reign in 
1910 by assuming the royal title. 



E 2 



CHAPTER VI 

THE BALANCE OF POWER 

The present grouping of the Great Powers 
is mainly the result of the Franco-German 
War. So long as Bismarck was at the helm 
Europe was dominated by the newly founded 
Empire ; but the last two decades have wit- 
nessed a gradual return to the equilibrium 
which is the normal condition of European 
politics. 

Throughout the conflict of 1870 Bismarck 

was tortured by the fear of a coalition ; and 

when France was beaten the task of his life 

was to keep her in quarantine. Even before 

the war was over he aimed at an alliance 

with Russia and Austria. Alexander II was 

the nephew of the Emperor William, and the 

relations of the two Courts were cordial. 

When the struggle began Bismarck secretly 

encouraged Russia to tear up the restrictions 

on her right to keep warships in the Black 

Sea. An alliance with Austria might seem 

less easy to accomplish ; but it was not 

impossible. Bismarck had insisted on taking 
X32 



THE BALANCE OF POWER 133 

no territory from the conquered party in 
1866. Though Napoleon III expected Aus- 
trian assistance in his time of need, Francis 
Joseph stood aside, chiefly owing to a fear 
that Russia might also join in the fray. 
The anti-Prussian Beust was dismissed in 
1871, and in 1872 the three Emperors met at 
Berlin. No written agreement was con- 
cluded, but it was decided to consult each 
other in international affairs. 

Bismarck supported the Republic in France 
on the double ground that it would be weaker 
and less likely to attract allies than a mon- 
archy ; but when she increased her army in 
1875, Moltke demanded a second war. France 
appealed to Russia, the Tsar and Gortschakoff 
hastened to Berlin, and Queen Victoria 
wrote to the Emperor William. The danger 
was averted ; but the intervention of Russia 
left an unpleasant impression on Bismarck's 
mind. When Austria and Great Britain 
declared that the settlement of the Near 
East after the Russo-Turkish War was a 
matter for Europe as a whole, Bismarck 
offered himself as an " honest broker " and 
presided over the Congress of Berlin not as 
a friend of Russia but as an arbiter. Big 
Bulgaria, in which Russian influence would 
be supreme, was vetoed, while Austria, which 
had taken no part in the struggle, was pre- 
sented with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The 



134 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

pride of Gortschakoff and his master, who 
expected some return for their benevolent 
neutrahty in 1870, was deeply wounded. 
Katkoff denounced Bismarck in the Moscow 
Gazette, and the massing of Russian troops 
on the German frontier seemed to bring war 
within sight. William tried to soothe his 
nephew by an interview ; but Bismarck went 
to Vienna and brought home a treaty, the 
assent of the Emperor being secured by a 
threat of resignation. The Dual Alliance 
concluded in 1879, but not published till 1888, 
bound the signatories to support each other 
if attacked by Russia. If one was attacked 
by any other Power, the other should remain 
neutral ; but if the enemy were supported 
by Russia, the other was bound to assist. 
The alliance was welcomed in both countries 
as a complete safeguard against a Russian 
attack, and Germany was secured against a 
Franco-Russian onslaught. The pact closed 
the chapter of strife and estrangement between 
men of German blood, and healed the wounds 
of Sadowa. 

The Dual Alliance marks the beginning 
of the definite division of Europe into two 
camps. Three years later the adhesion of 
Italy created the Triple Alliance. Though 
Italy had combined with Prussia in 1866 to 
attack Austria, her sympathies in 1870 were 
with France. But the French Republic in 



THE BALANCE OF POWER 135 

its early years was governed by men who 
resented the loss of the Temporal Power, 
and for some years a French ship lay at 
Civita Vecchia at the disposal of the Pope, 
as a mute protest against the occupation of 
Rome. The danger of intervention passed 
away when Gambetta repulsed the mon- 
archical attack in 1877 ; but another cause 
of friction soon appeared. Knowing Italy's 
ambitions, Bismarck seized the opportunity 
of the Congress of Berlin to suggest to Wad- 
dington, the French representative, the 
occupation of Tunis. A similar encourage- 
ment came from Great Britain as the price 
of French acquiescence in the acquisition of 
Cyprus. Backed by these sponsors France 
established a protectorate in 1881. Italy 
seethed with indignation, and if she had 
continued to stand alone a war with France 
might easily have arisen. An alliance seemed 
essential to national security, and she became 
the ally of Germany and Austria for five 
years. Despite the huge increase of ex- 
penditure on armaments that it involved, 
the alliance was renewed in 1887 and has 
remained to this day. 

The formation of the Triple Alliance was 
a further step towards Bismarck's ideal of a 
friendless France. As England was known 
never to enter into alliances, the only Power 
to whom the Republic could look was Russia. 



136 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

Accordingly Bismarck exerted himself to the 
utmost to restore friendly relations with St. 
Petersburg. The accession of Alexander III 
in 1881 brought to the throne a ruler whose 
dislike of Germany was notorious, but whose 
love of peace was sincere and whose fear of 
revolution amounted to a mania. In 1884 
the three Emperors bound themselves for 
three years to benevolent neutrality in the 
event of any one of them attacking or being 
attacked by another Power. Thus at last 
France was completely isolated. But in the 
following year the union of Eastern Roumelia 
with Bulgaria led to differences between 
Russia and the Central Powers, and in 1887 
the Tsar determined to withdraw from the 
entente. Bismarck, however, persuaded him 
to renew the bond with Germany for three 
years more, doing his best in return to 
convince Russia of his goodwill. When a 
daughter of the Emperor Frederick desired 
in 1888 to marry Alexander of Battenberg, 
sometime Prince of Bulgaria, he compelled 
the parents under threat of resignation to 
break off the match. Yet the Tsar remained 
convinced that Germany could not be relied 
upon, and before the expiry of the three 
years for which the " reinsurance treaty " 
held good he had resolved not to renew it. 

The fall of Bismarck in 1890 was the 
signal rather than the cause of a great trans- 



THE BALANCE OF POWER 187 

formation in European polities. For twenty 
years he had kept France in isolation. He 
had often declared that since 1870 Germany 
was " satiated." William II, on the other 
hand, dreamed of territorial expansion, and, 
trusting in the Triple Alliance, made no 
attempt to renew the treaty with Alexander. 
Thus Russia, no longer pressed or bribed by 
Germany, was at last free to take the 
momentous step to which she had long been 
gravitating. 

In 1870 the sympathies of the Russian 
Government had been with Germany, for 
Louis Napoleon's share in the Crimean War 
and his championship of Poland in 1868 were 
not forgotten. But the German and Russian 
peoples have always disliked each other, and 
Alexander II had no desire to see Germany 
dominate the Continent. The intervention 
of 1875 may be regarded as the first step 
towards the Franco-Russian alliance. After 
the rebuff inflicted by the Treaty of Berlin 
many Russian publicists advocated an 
alliance ; yet the Tsar was unconvinced, and 
Gr6vy, Gambetta and the majority of French 
statesmen were strongly anti-Russian. But 
events were stronger than individuals. In 
April, 1887, when France and Germany were 
brought to the verge of war by the arrest 
of Schnaebele, who had crossed the frontier 
for a discussion with a German functionary, 



138 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

the Tsar sent an autograph letter to the 
Emperor, who ordered the instant release 
of the prisoner. In 1888 the first Russian 
loan was placed on the French market. In 
1890 Russian nihilists were arrested in Paris 
while engaged in the preparation of bombs, 
and the plan of a visit of the French fleet 
to Russia was discussed. In 1891 a squadron 
visited Cronstadt, and the Tsar listened 
bareheaded to the "Marseillaise." Europe 
was startled by the enthusiastic welcome, 
and Caprivi declared that there must be an 
alliance. A month later a treaty was signed 
in Paris by Ribot, the Foreign Minister, and 
Mohrenheim, the Russian ambassador. In 
the following year a military convention 
was drawn up, though it was not ratified 
till 1894. A Russian squadron visited 
Toulon in 1893, and the sailors received an 
almost delirious w^elcome. In 1895 Ribot 
spoke of Russia as " our ally " in the Chamber. 
In 1896 the new Tsar visited France — ^the 
first visit of a crowned head to the Third 
Republic — and received an immense ovation. 
Finally, in 1897, Faure returned the visit, 
and the alliance was at last proclaimed by 
the Tsar in the famous words, " nations 
amies et alliees." 

Though the terms of the treaty have never 
been published there can be no doubt that 
Russia is pledged to support her ally in case 



THE BALANCE OF POWER 139 

of attack by Germany. That a first class 
Power should desire an alliance was an 
emphatic recognition that France had re- 
covered from her defeat. The glaring 
differences of political institutions and ideas 
were forgotten in the satisfaction of possessing 
a powerful friend. On the Russian side the 
alliance was hailed as good political business. 
Her plans of Asiatic expansion required an 
assured position in Europe, and demanded 
unlimited capital, which thrifty France was 
ready to supply. 

The Triple Alliance no longer dominated 
Europe without a competitor ; but the old 
combination was stronger than the new, for 
Great Britain was no friend either of Russia 
or of France. She had joined in the Crimean 
War and she had torn up the treaty of San 
Stefano. She had given moral support to 
Bulgaria during the crisis of 1885. She had 
watched the Russian advance beyond the 
Caspian with unconcealed dislike, and the 
two countries had been brought within sight 
of war by a frontier incident at Penjdeh in 
1885. Aggression on the Pamirs in 1891-2 
confirmed the belief that Russia had designs 
on India and that a great struggle was 
inevitable. The scramble for China which 
began in 1897 added a new source of friction, 
and the seizure of Port Arthur moved Mr. 
Chamberlain to the wrathful exclamation, 



140 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

" Who sups with the Devil must have a long 
spoon." 

With France there was a much older 
tradition of hostility, and the era of French 
colonial expansion, inaugurated by Jules 
Ferry, opened up a boundless vista of con- 
troversy. The British Government pro- 
tested against the fortification of Bizerta, and 
for many years refused to surrender its rights 
under the Capitulations in Tunis. A long 
series of bickerings occurred in relation to 
Nigeria. The transportation of convicts to 
New Caledonia was hotly resented by 
Australia, whither many escaped, and the 
occupation of the New Hebrides was contrary 
to repeated declarations. A French attack 
on Siam in support of her claims to the Mekong 
river brought war within sight. The ruthless 
exclusion of British trade from Madagascar 
when the island was annexed in 1896 excited 
the indignation of the commercial world, 
and the dispute about the Newfoundland 
fisheries remained unsolved. 

Above all, the British occupation of Egypt, 
in which France had taken a peculiar interest 
since the expedition of Napoleon, provided 
a constant source of irritation. For some 
years France comforted herself with the 
belief that on the restoration of order Britain 
would withdraw, in accordance with her 
repeated declarations ; but by the irony of 



THE BALANCE OF POWER 141 

fate the last chance was frustrated by her 
own action. In 1887 the Wolff Convention 
arranged for evacuation within three years, 
subject to the right to re-enter if the interests 
of the bondholders were threatened. Yield- 
ing to the representations of France Abdul 
Hamid refused the conditions. A few years 
later it was made clear that no limit to the 
occupation was contemplated. In 1895 the 
British Government announced that it would 
regard an attempt by another Power to occupy 
any part of the Nile valley as an unfriendly 
act ; and in 1896 the reconquest of the Sudan 
was commenced. Despite the Grey declara- 
tion, repeated and confirmed by the British 
Ambassador in Paris in 1897 and 1898, 
Captain Marchand was dispatched from the 
French Congo in 1896 to establish a post on 
the Upper Nile. He reached Fashoda in 
July 1898 ; but after the battle of Omdurman 
Kitchener marched south and ordered the 
force to retire. The dispute was referred 
to Paris. When the French Government 
hesitated, British opinion declared itself in 
uncompromising tones, and war was only 
averted by unconditional surrender. Eng- 
land's loudly expressed disgust at the treat- 
ment of Dreyfus increased the hostility, 
and the Boer War provided France with an 
opportunity of retaliation of which she 
hastened to avail herself. 



142 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

The relations of Great Britain with the 
members of the Triple Alliance, on the 
other hand, were thoroughly friendly. Her 
sympathy with Italy was proverbial, and a 
secret understanding was reached in 1887 
guaranteeing the status quo in the Mediter- 
ranean. With Austria, in like manner, there 
was no clash of interest or ambition. With 
the leading member of the Alliance she was 
closely connected by ties of blood. Bismarck 
was friendly and accommodating, and con- 
sistently supported the British position on the 
Nile, remarking, " In Egypt I am English." 
The dispatch of a congratulatory telegram 
to Kruger after the repulse of the Jameson 
Raid created momentary indignation ; but 
allowances were made for the impulsive 
temperament of its author, and no one 
regarded it as an indication of any deep- 
seated hostility. At the outbreak of the Boer 
War Mr. Chamberlain pleaded for a new 
Triple Alliance between Great Britain, Ger- 
many, and the United States, and at the 
Lord Mayor's banquet Salisbury declared the 
relations of the two countries to be " every- 
thing we could desire." 

The early years of the twentieth century 
witnessed a gradual alteration of the balance 
of forces, resulting in the transfer of support 
from the Triple to the Dual Alliance. The 
three main steps in this momentous trans- 



THE BALANCE OF POWER 143 

formation were the reconciliation of Italy 
with France, of France with England, and of 
England with Russia. 

The quarrel of France and Italy, which 
began with the occupation of Tunis, reached 
its most acute stage during the ministries of 
Crispi. A tariff war began in 1888, and 
incidents constantly occurred which revealed 
and intensified ill-feeling. In 1887 the 
Italian police violated the archives of the 
French Consulate at Florence. In 1888 the 
Italian Commander came into conflict with 
French subjects at Massowah. In 1891 a 
French pilgrim inscribed the words " Vive 
le Roi-Pape " near the tomb of Victor 
Emanuel. In 1893 Italian workmen were 
killed in a brawl at Aigues-Mortes, and the 
Roman mob retaliated by an attack on the 
residence of the French Ambassador. In 
1894 a number of French journalists were 
expelled from Rome. Indeed, the relations 
of France with Italy were worse than with 
Germany. But there had always been a party 
in favour of friendly relations, and after the 
fall of Crispi wiser counsels began to prevail. 
In 1896 Italy recognised the French position 
in Tunis. In 1898 a commercial treaty ended 
the tariff war, which had impoverished both 
countries. In 1901 France announced that 
she would not oppose Italian claims in 
Tripoli, while Italy promised France a free 



144 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

hand in Morocco. In 1903 the King of Italy- 
paid an official visit to Paris, and the seal was 
set to the reconciliation when President 
Loubet, despite the thunders of the Vatican, 
returned the visit in 1904. 

The second step towards the re-grouping 
of the Powers was taken in May 1903, when 
King Edward VII paid his first official visit 
to Paris. Though the anti-Drey fusards had 
fallen from power, and though Delcasse was 
more friendly than Hanotaux, France was in 
no mood to make advances to her old enemy. 
The initiative came from the King himself, 
who, unlike his mother, was well known to 
be a sincere admirer of the Republic. The 
position of Great Britain was no longer what 
it had been. So long as she could rely on 
the friendliness of the Triple Alliance, the 
enmity of France and Russia was not very 
dangerous. But German disapproval of the 
Boer War had been expressed in a highly 
offensive manner ; and though the Emperor 
refused to see Kruger and the Boer Generals, 
and behaved throughout with scrupulous 
correctness, the old cordiality completely 
disappeared. At the end of 1901 Mr. 
Chamberlain vehemently protested against 
German attacks on the British troops, and 
recalled certain features of the campaign 
of 1870. Billow replied in the Reichstag that 
criticisms of the German army were like 



THE BALANCE OF POWER 145 

attempts to bite granite. The gulf opened by 
the war was widened by the refusal of the 
British Government to assist in the project 
of the Bagdad railway, and by the obvious 
determination of Germany to become a great 
naval Power. 

King Edy/ard was welcomed in Paris with 
respect if not with enthusiasm, and the 
return visit paid by President Loubet in July 
paved the way for a further interchange 
of ideas. Before the war Mr, Chamber- 
lain had complained of a policy of pinpricks, 
and rudely warned France to mend her 
manners. The countries were still at issue 
on several points ; but the elements of a 
bargain were present. The withdrawal from 
Fashoda left France nothing to fight for on 
the Nile, while Great Britain possessed no 
special interests in Morocco, to which France 
had long been turning her eyes. On these 
foundations a treaty was framed, France 
surrendering all claims to Egypt and under- 
taking not to press for the termination of 
the occupation. Great Britain according 
France a free hand in Morocco. Minor 
disputes regarding West Africa, Siam, the 
New Hebrides, Madagascar, and Newfound- 
land were amicably arranged. The treaty, 
which was signed in April 1904, was wel- 
comed in both countries not only as a settle- 
ment of long-standing differences but as 



146 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

paving the way for friendly co-operation. 
For the one it ended a period of political 
isolation which was becoming dangerous. 
To the other it brought an accession of 
security only second in importance to the 
Russian alliance. That Great Britain shortly 
after undertook to render assistance to 
France if attacked by Germany is widely 
believed in spite of official denials. 

France had gained new friends, and she 
was soon to need them. On the eve of the 
signature of the treaty, Delcasse informed 
the German Ambassador in Paris of its 
terms, and Prince Radolin pronounced it 
to be " very natural and perfectly justified." 
On its publication Biilow declared in the 
Reichstag that there was no reason to suppose 
it to be directed against any Power, and 
that it contained nothing prejudicial to 
German interests in Morocco, which were 
purely commercial. After such declarations 
the French Government had no hesitation 
in taking the next step forward. In October 
an agreement was signed with Spain, whom Del- 
casse thus associated with his plans of pacific 
penetration. As Morocco adjoined Algeria, 
frontier incidents were of common occurrence. 
Abdul-Aziz, who had ascended the throne 
in 1894 at the age of sixteen, was intelligent 
enough to admire the outward trappings 
of European civilisation but not to assimilate 



THE BALANCE OF POWER 147 

its spirit. His love of foreign inventions 
irritated his people, and in his nerveless 
grasp the kingdom fell into chaos. Agree- 
ments with France in 1901 and 1902 pro- 
vided for co-operation in the maintenance 
of order; but the whole country needed 
reorganisation, and in 1904 he was presented 
with a bold scheme of reforms to be carried 
out by the aid of French loans. 

The first hint of trouble came from the 
German Minister in Morocco in the early 
weeks of 1905 ; and diplomatic war was 
declared in March when the Emperor landed 
from his yacht at Tangier, and announced 
that the Sultan was free and independent, 
that it would be unwise to hurry reform, 
and that German interests would be safe- 
guarded. This unexpected outburst, which 
virtually promised support to Morocco in 
resisting French pressure, was followed by an 
invitation to a Conference on the Moroccan 
question. The proposal was a direct challenge 
to French claims, and Delcasse advised its 
rejection. The Rouvier Cabinet refused to 
run risks, and the Foreign Minister, who had 
held the reigns for seven years, was forced 
to resign. His fall was a triumph for Ger- 
many, and was marked by the elevation of 
Billow to the rank of Prince. 

The resignation of Delcasse was a second 
Fashoda. French resentment was the keener 



148 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

owing to the conviction that Germany had 
taken advantage of the temporary paralysis 
of her ally. The attack on French policy 
began on the fall of Port Arthur, and the 
Tangier speech was delivered after the re- 
verses in Manchuria. It was believed, more- 
over, that Morocco was only the occasion 
to strike at the entente into which she had 
lately entered. A revulsion of feeling set 
in, and large sums were spent on preparing 
the army for instant war. In August the 
Treaty of Portsmouth allowed Russia to 
resume her part in European politics. Thus, 
when the Conference met at Algeciras in 
January 1906, France was in no yielding 
mood. Throughout the prolonged discus- 
sions she was backed by Russia and Great 
Britain, while Italy incurred German resent- 
ment by her obvious friendliness. The United 
States supported her on the merits of the 
case, and even Austria showed a disposition 
to arrive at a fair compromise. Thus while 
the submission of the Moroccan question 
to the European areopagus was a triumph 
for Germany, the Conference itself dis- 
appointed her. Though the integrity of 
Morocco was secured, France and Spain 
obtained a mandate to organise a police force 
for the coast towns, and France was allowed 
a predominant share in the proposed State 
bank. In 1908 a dangerous quarrel arising 



THE BALANCE OF POWER 149 

out of the arrest of German deserters at 
Casablanca was settled by the Hague Tribunal. 
Finally, by an agreement in 1909, Germany 
recognised the special political interest of 
France. 

The entente which had grown out of the 
Treaty of 1904 had proved itself capable of 
resisting strain ; but there was still one more 
step to be taken before the position of France 
could be regarded as satisfactory. Her ally 
and her friend still looked askance at one 
another. The Russo-Japanese War had pro- 
duced an awkward situation. It had re- 
quired all Delcasse's tact to avoid an explosion 
when the Russians fired on the Hull fishermen, 
while a new danger arose when Japan angrily 
charged France with assisting the Russian 
fleet during its voyage to the Far East. But 
the common support of France during the 
critical months at Algeciras brought Great 
Britain and Russia nearer together. The 
Tsar had begun to discuss the questions at 
issue with Sir Charles Hardinge at St. Peters- 
burg in 1905, and Sir Edward Grey was 
known to have set his heart on an arrange- 
ment. After long negotiations a treaty was 
signed in August 1907, defining the respective 
spheres of influence in Persia, recognising the 
right of Great Britain to control the foreign 
policy of Afghanistan, and pledging both 
parties to abstain from interference in Tibet. 



150 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

The Treaty was sharply attacked by one 
school of critics on the ground that the line 
through Persia was unduly favourable to 
Russia, by another on the ground that it 
virtually partitioned the country, and that 
co-operation with Russia was indefensible. 
In reply it was urged that the removal of the 
fear of Russian attack on India was worth 
some sacrifices, and that the Treaty would 
lead to mutual support in European politics. 
The visit of King Edward to Reval in June 
1908 revealed such cordial relations between 
the two Governments that Germany pro- 
fessed to discover a design for her isolation. 
The entente was further consolidated by 
the reconciliation of Russia and France with 
Japan on the basis of a recognition of the 
statuis quo in the Far East. 

A few months after the Dual Alliance had 
expanded into the Triple Entente the waters 
of European diplomacy were once more 
ruffled. Though Austria and Russia had 
agreed in 1897 to work together in the Balkans, 
the world was startled in February 1908 
by an announcement that the Austro-Hun- 
garian Foreign Minister had obtained per- 
mission to make a survey for the construction 
of a railway through the Sanjak of Novibazar. 
To ask or accept such a favour from Turkey 
at a time when the only hope of Macedonian 
reform lay in unceasing pressure from the 



THE BALANCE OF POWER 151 

I Concert appeared something like treason. 

j Moreover, it opened the door to the ambitions 
of other Balkan Powers, and Servia im- 

' mediately put forward a demand, which was 
supported by Russia, for a railway to the 
Adriatic, But before either project could 
be commenced, the revolution in Turkey 
altered the whole face of affairs. 

While sympathetically watching the efforts 
of the Young Turks to grapple with their 
gigantic problem, Europe was startled by 
the news that Bulgaria had thrown off the 
suzerainty of Turkey, and that Austria- 
Hungary had annexed Bosnia and Herze- 
govina, at the same time renouncing her 
right to the military occupation of Novibazar. 
In a moment the whole of Eastern Europe 
was in a ferment. Servia demanded com- 
pensation for the destruction of her hopes 
of union with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and 
Montenegro pressed for the removal of her 
fetters on the Adriatic seaboard. Meanwhile 
Sir Edward Grey declared that any modifica- 
tions of the Treaty of Berlin must be approved 
by another European Congress, and Russia 
and France supported the demand. 

Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary compounded 
for their sins by a cash indemnity ; but when 
the danger of war with Turkey was removed 
D'Aehrenthal could afford to oppose an 
unyielding front to the claims of Servia. 



152 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

The little kingdom, however, trusted to the 
support of its mighty Slav neighbour. 
Izvolsky, the Russian Foreign Minister, had 
been informed during the early summer that 
Austria-Hungary would some day annex the 
Turkish provinces ; but the speedy execution 
of the plan came as a shock to St. Petersburg. 
As the winter advanced Europe became 
sharply divided into two camps. The tension 
was ended in March 1909 by a peremptory 
intimation from the Kaiser to the Tsar that 
if his support of Servian claims were to lead 
to war with Austria, Germany would support 
her ally with all her forces. The opposition 
instantly collapsed, and the Powers of the 
Triple Entente recognised the annexations 
without waiting for a Conference. D'Aeh- 
renthal had played a bold game and won ; 
but his victory was dearly bought. The 
indemnity to Turkey and the much larger 
sum spent on preparing the army for instant 
war, the surrender of Novibazar, the boycott 
of Austrian goods in the Levant, the estrange- 
ment of Turkey, Servia, and Montenegro, 
above all, the alienation of the Powers of the 
Triple Entente, might well appear even to 
his countrymen a high price to pay for the 
abolition of Turkish suzerainty over provinces 
that had for all practical purposes belonged 
to the Dual Monarchy for a generation. 
The storm subsided very slowly. On 



THE BALANCE OF POWER 153 

visiting the King of Italy the Tsar ostenta- 
tiously avoided passing through Austrian 
territory, and a little later William II on a 
visit to Vienna reminded his hearers how he 
had stood by their ruler " in shining armour " 
in the recent crisis. But there are no eternal 
feuds in European politics except between 
France and Germany. The old cordiality 
between Great Britain and Austria gradually 
returned, and the withdrawal of Izvolsky to 
the Paris Embassy marked a ditente between 
Vienna and St. Petersburg. When the Tsar 
visited Potsdam at the close of 1910, Germany 
undertook to facilitate the plans of Russia 
in Persia, and Russia withdrew her opposition 
to the Bagdad railway, which it was agreed 
to extend to the Persian frontier. Though 
it was an exaggeration to assert that the 
Potsdam interviews marked the virtual with- 
drawal of Russia from the Triple Entente, 
they recorded the closing of the breach which 
had been opened in 1908. 

The mutual suspicion of Germany and 
Great Britain remains ; but it is gradually 
becoming less acute. If the German ship- 
building programme is reduced in 1912, as 
the Navy Law provides, the apprehension 
that she is seeking to steal the mastery of 
the seas should disappear. Meanwhile the 
agreement of the two Governments, announced 
in 1911, to inform each other of their naval 



154 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

construction will prevent the recurrence of 
the scare that arose in 1909 when the British 
Admiralty solemnly announced its discovery 
of an imaginary acceleration. More important 
is the surrender by the Bagdad Railway 
Company of its right to carry the line to 
the Persian Gulf in return for permission 
to connect it with the Mediterranean. The 
compromise removes a troublesome source of 
friction and brings within sight the co-opera- 
tion or at least the friendly acquiescence of 
Great Britain in the completion of the great 
enterprise. The sudden dispatch of a cruiser 
to Agadir in July 1911 announced the deter- 
mination of Germany to be consulted in regard 
to the new situation in Morocco arising from the 
French expedition to Fez and the Spanish 
occupation of posts in the interior ; but it gave 
no reason to anticipate a repetition of the 
agitating experiences of 1905. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE AWAKENING OF ASIA 

The most important event in the political 
history of the last generation is the awaken- 
ing of Asia. The reaction on world politics 
has already been immense, and its further 
influence is the most incalculable element 
in the future. 



After massacring her Jesuit missionaries in 
the seventeenth century, Japan lived a hermit 
life till the coming of Commodore Perry's 
squadron in 1854 forced her to open her 
doors and revise her political ideas. The 
last of the Shogmis resigned in 1867, and 
the power of the Emperor was restored 
after an eclipse of more than two centuries. 
The Daimios chivalrously surrendered their 
privileges, and the remains of feudalism 
were abolished by decree in 1871. Thus in 
four years the country was unified under a 
centralised government. But the task of 

155 



156 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

creating a modern State was complicated 
by treaty rights, which not only deprived 
Japan of all power over foreign residents, 
but prevented the raising of the customs 
tariff. After vainly endeavouring to obtain 
a modification of the treaties the Government 
sent an embassy to Europe in 1871. Though 
the mission failed, its members carried back 
the lessons of civilisation. An efficient army 
and navy were created, compulsory educa- 
tion inaugurated, and the judicial system 
reformed. In 1894 Great Britain recognised 
Japan as a civilised State. By 1899 the 
other Powers had followed suit, and ex- 
territoriality was at an end. For the 
first time Europe submitted the fortunes 
of her children to the jurisdiction of an 
Oriental State. 

The modernisation of Japan naturally 
carried with it the introduction of representa- 
tive institutions, and in 1880 the Em^peror 
promised a national Parliament. The plan- 
ning of a constitution was entrusted to Ito, 
who paid a prolonged visit to the West, 
where he fell under the spell of Bismarck. In 
1885 he became the head of the first Cabinet, 
the members of which were appointed 
by and responsible to the Emperor. The 
first Parliament met in 1890. The constitu- 
tion was largely modelled on that of Prussia, 
with a narrow franchise (extended in 1900) 



THE FAR EAST 157 

and an independent executive. The early- 
years of Parliament were filled by bitter strife 
with the ministers and the official class, over 
whom the elected House possessed no con- 
trol. Opposition and obstruction were met 
by repeated dissolutions, and the power of 
the Emperor remained undiminished. His 
authority has been consistently supported by 
the House of Peers, in which the influence 
of the Elder Statesmen is predominant. His 
person still inspires religious veneration, 
while the long and prosperous reign of 
Mutsuhito, who ascended the throne while 
Japan was still a feudal State, has strengthened 
the prestige of the Crown. 

The birth of a powerful State in the Far 
East was proclaimed in 1894. An attempt 
had been made to establish closer relations 
with Korea, and a Japanese envoy was sent 
to reside at Seoul in 1880. The legation 
was attacked in 1882, and again in 1884. The 
weakness and misgovernment of Korea was a 
perpetual temptation to her neighbours ; and 
Japan invited China to co-operate in demand- 
ing reform. When China refused, Japan 
endeavoured to set the Korean Government 
in motion, and, as no response was forth- 
coming, issued an ultimatum calling on 
Korea to accept the Japanese programme of 
reforms in July 1894. Korea temporised, 
Seoul was taken without difficulty, and the 



158 HISTORY OF OUR TIME \ 

1 
Emperor made prisoner. China immediately \ 
intervened, but was easily defeated by| 
Japanese troops, which had been trained byj 
European officers. The capture of Port* 
Arthur compelled Li Hung Chang to ask fori 
peace, and on the fall of Wei-hai-Wei the; 
war was over. In April 1895 a treaty was 
signed at Shimonoseki, by which China 
ceded to Japan the Liao-Tung peninsula 
and the island of Formosa, and promised a 
large indemnity. 

The ink of the treaty was hardly dry 
when Russia, France, and Germany ordered 
Japan to surrender the Liao-Tung peninsula, 
on the ground that the possession of Port 
Arthur threatened the independence of Pekin. 
Japan had no alternative but to submit, 
and the Chinese indemnity was increased 
by five millions. The intervention of the 
Western Powers opened a new chapter in the 
history of the Far East. Russia had reached 
the Pacific in the seventeenth century, and 
the Amur region was secured in 1858-60 by 
Muravief. The trans-Siberian railway was 
begun in 1891. After saving China from the 
loss of the peninsula, Russia concluded a 
convention with her authorising a branch 
line through Manchuria. But the insin- 
cerity of the Powers in forbidding Japanese 
spoliation was soon revealed. In 1897, when 
two German missionaries were murdered in 



THE FAR EAST 159 

Shantung, China was compelled to lease the 
port and district of Kiao-Chow to Germany 
for 99 years. Russia followed suit by ob- 
taining permission to winter her fleet in 
Port Arthur, and in March 1898 demanded 
a lease of the coveted ice-free port. Great 
Britain, not to be outdone, acquired Wei-hai- 
Wei, and an extension of her territory op- 
posite Hong-Kong. France obtained a con- 
cession near Tonkin ; but when even Italy 
asked for a bay China plucked up courage 
to refuse. 

The encroachments of the Powers evoked 
intense indignation in China, and killed the 
reform movement which had begun after 
the Japanese war. The only satisfactory 
piece of imperial machinery was the adminis- 
tration of the maritime customs by Sir 
Robert Hart. The young Emperor, Kuang- 
Hsu, was convinced of the need of change, 
and adopted the proposals of Kang Yu Wei. 
Learning that her nephew had decided on her 
imprisonment, and taking advantage of the 
growing hatred of the " foreign devils," the 
Dowager-Empress, Tzu Hsi, emerged from 
her retreat. The Emperor's life was spared 
and Kang Yu Wei escaped, but his reforming 
colleagues were executed. The Regency was 
re-established, the reform decrees were 
annulled, and China swung back to reaction. 
A society called the Boxers, who claimed to 



160 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

be invulnerable, rapidly spread through the 
provinces, preaching death to foreigners. 
Attacks on Europeans began in 1899, and 
became frequent in the early months of 1900. 
In May the Ministers at Pekin asked for 
additional guards. No sooner had they 
arrived than the city was surrounded by 
Boxer troops. An attempt by Admiral 
Seymour to reach the capital was frustrated. 
The destruction of the Taku forts, which had 
fired on the allied warships, was treated as 
a declaration of war. The imperial troops 
now joined the Boxers, the German Am- 
bassador was murdered in the streets of 
Pekin, and the foreign residents, who had 
taken refuge in the British Legation, were 
bombarded. Early in August an army of 
20,000 men started for Pekin. The capital 
was entered after sharp fighting ten days 
later, the Empress fled into the interior, and 
the Legations were rescued after a terrible 
siege of two months. The allies insisted on 
the punishment of the ringleaders, the dis- 
mantling of the forts between Pekin and 
the coast, and immense indemnities. To 
prevent a similar occurrence the Legations 
were fortified. Peace was signed in 1901, 
and the Empress returned early in 1902. 

The resentment aroused in Japan by the 
forced surrender of Port Arthur swelled into 
deep indignation when Russia herself seized 



THE FAR EAST 161 

the coveted stronghold. A demand for a 
port on the southern coast of Korea in 1899 
had to be withdrawn ; but after the Pekin 
expedition Admiral Alexeieff, the Russian 
Viceroy of the Far East, invited China to 
resume the government of Manchuria under 
Russian protection. Japan protested in 
vain ; but her position was strengthened by 
an alliance with Great Britain in 1902, the 
latter promising support if her ally was 
attacked by more than one Power. The 
conduct of the Japanese troops during the 
Pekin expedition had compared very favour- 
ably with that of some of the European 
contingents, and the treaty of 1902 recognised 
the entry of Japan into the family of civilised 
Powers. 

A few weeks after the conclusion of the 
alliance a treaty was signed between Russia 
and China, the former undertaking to evacu- 
ate Manchuria in three stages of six months 
each, the latter to defend Russian interests in 
that province. The treaty relieved Japanese 
apprehensions ; and in the autumn of 1902 
the Russians withdrew from the first of the 
three sections. But in 1903, instead of 
continuing the evacuation, Russia demanded 
new concessions. Supported by Great 
Britain, Japan, and the United States, China 
refused the demands. At the same moment 
Russian activity increased in Korea. Russian 



162 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

speculators had obtained a concession to cut 
timber on the banks of the Yalu, and 
influential members of the Russian Court 
were interested in the enterprise. Japan 
complained that the withdrawal from 
Manchuria was not being carried out, and 
suggested a treaty which should safeguard 
Russian interests in Manchuria and define 
Japan's position in Korea. Russia refused 
to recognise Japanese claims in Korea, and 
after several months of negotiation, during 
which troops were hurried to the Far East, 
Japan issued an ultimatum in February 1904. 
The course of the conflict was watched 
by the whole world with amazement. Few 
expected Japan to show such perfect organisa- 
tion, such strategic genius, such irresistible 
bravery ; while on the other hand few were 
prepared for the blundering incompetence of 
Russia. For the Japanese it was a national 
struggle for clearly defined objects, while 
the Russian people knew nothing of the 
causes and aims of the war. A second 
advantage for Japan was that the conflict 
ranged in part over ground familiar to her 
since 1894, while the Russian front was 
6000 miles from the base, and her troops 
had to be transported by a single line. 
When the war began the Russian forces were 
greatly inferior in numbers, and she was 
discouraged at the outset by the destruction 



THE FAR EAST 163 

or damage of several ships at Port Arthur 
and Chemulpo. After these initial successes 
Japanese troops invested Port Arthur, while 
the main army forced their way across the 
Yalu. The Russians were defeated at Liao- 
Yang, and in a prolonged encounter on the 
Sha-ho. On New Year's Day, 1905, Port 
Arthur was surrendered by Stossel, though 
24,000 men and provisions for three months 
remained. The fall of the great fortress set 
free the besieging army, and another titanic 
struggle took place before Mukden in 
February. After a fortnight's fighting, in 
which each side lost about 60,000 in killed 
and wounded, the Russians retreated north. 
The Japanese were too exhausted to follow 
up the victory, and both combatants 
watched the leisurely voyage of the Russian 
fleet from Europe. As it entered the Straits 
of Tsushima between Korea and Japan on 
the way to Vladivostock on May 27th, it 
was annihilated by Togo. The command of 
the Pacific was decided in a single day. 

The failure of her last card induced Russia 
to consider the question of peace. Japan, 
whose resources had been strained to the 
uttermost, was equally desirous of an honour- 
able termination of the struggle. A fortnight 
after the battle of Tsushima representatives 
were chosen to discuss terms. No armistice 
was concluded, and the Japanese landed a 
f2 



164 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

force in Sakhalin. The negotiations opened 
in August, and three weeks later peace was 
signed. The Treaty of Portsmouth recog- 
nised the claims of Japan in Korea, ceded 
the Liao-Tung peninsula and the southern 
half of Sakhalin, and provided for the 
evacuation of Manchuria by Russia. The 
war had cost each side about 100 millions in 
money and 200,000 in killed and wounded. 
The victory of Japan is the most important 
event of the period with which this volume 
deals. In the years immediately preceding 
the war the Powers had been carving China 
into slices. The ringleader had now been 
overthrown in single combat, and the achieve- 
ment thrilled Asia with a confidence and self- 
respect she had never known. The spell had 
been broken. The West was not irresistible. 
The question is no longer what the white 
man will leave to the yellow races, but what 
the yellow races will permit the white man 
to retain. 

In no country was the reverberation louder 
than in China. The reactionary nationalism 
which had culminated in the Boxer movement 
gave place to an enthusiasm for Western 
learning and Western methods. Decrees 
appeared condemning foot-binding, recom- 
mending intermarriage between Manchus and 
Chinese, abolishing the system of literary 
examinations for official employment, and 



y 



THE FAR EAST 165 

forbidding torture and mutilation. Railways 
were built and schools were opened, Japanese 
instructors were engaged, and large numbers 
went to study abroad. A Coram- ssion was 
sent to Europe in 1906 to examine the 
systems of government, and on its return the 
Regent announced her intention to grant a 
Constitution. In 1908 she and the puppet 
Emperor died within a day of each other ; 
but the death of the most remarkable per- 
sonality of modern China brought no change. 
Provincial assemblies were set up in 1909, 
and conducted their business with dignity 
and skill. A National Assembly, composed 
chiefly of officials and nominees, met at Pekin 
in 1910 and demanded that the first Parlia- 
ment, originally promised for 1917, should 
meet without delay. Almost more remarkable 
as an evidence of reforming zeal is the crusade 
against opium. Though depending on the 
duty for several millions a year, the Indian 
Government undertook in 1907 to stop the 
export to China by gradual steps within 10 
years, on condition of a corresponding reduc- 
tion in her own production of the poppy. 
The bargain was loyally kept, and in 1911 
China urged the Indian Government to co- 
operate in suppressing the traffic in two 
years. 



166 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

II 

While in the Far East the white man has 
been forced to abandon his ambitions, he 
continues to dominate the Middle East. Yet 
here, too, the sleeper is awakening. 

Though the Government of India is relat- 
ively unaffected by party changes at West- 
minster, the personality of a Viceroy often 
stamps the period of his rule. Thus Lytton 
(1876-1880) emphasised the might and 
majesty of British dominion, while Ripon's 
term (1880-1884) was marked by a courageous 
attempt to associate the people more closely 
with the control of their own affairs. His 
successor, Dufferin, was identified neither 
with Imperialism nor Liberalism. The 
establishment of Abdurrahman on the throne 
of Afghanistan had substituted a friendly 
for an unfriendly influence ; but the rapid 
advance of Russia beyond the Caspian con- 
tinued to inspire alarm. Though an agree- 
ment was reached in 1887, the danger led to 
the permanent increase of the army. On 
the other side of India an important conquest 
was effected. The maritime provinces of 
Burma had been annexed in previous wars, 
and at the end of 1885 the remainder of the 
country was conquered. While the savage 
rule of King Theebaw was the nominal pretext 
for intervention, the governing factor was 



INDIA AND PERSIA 167 

the discovery of his intrigues with French 
agents and concessionaires. No immediate 
resistance was made, but a guerrilla warfare 
broke out and continued for three years. 
On its suppression Burma entered on a period 
of peaceful prosperity, untroubled by famines 
or revolutionary movements. 

The main legislative achievement of 
Dufferin's term was the Bengal Tenancy Act 
of 1885, which checked the eviction of the 
ryot; but its most important event was not 
the work of the Government. The intro- 
duction of English literature and English 
ideas under the auspices of Macaulay had led 
to the growth of an educated class, relatively 
small in numbers but of considerable influ- 
ence. In 1886 the first National Congress met 
to discuss questions of common interest. 
Though a few Mohammedans took part in 
the movement, its founders were Hindus. 
Dufferin regarded the Congress as a healthy 
growth, and showed friendliness to the leaders 
It was a colossal blunder that his tactful 
attitude was abandoned by his successors. 

The term of Lord Lansdowne (1888-1894) 
witnessed an important change in the 
machinery of government. The Queen's 
Proclamation in 1858 declared that no one 
should be debarred from any office by ace 
or creed. A few Indian advisers had been 
admitted to Legislative Councils after the 



168 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

Mutiny ; but Dufferin had informed the Home 
Government that an increase in their numbers 
and powers would be expedient. The Indian 
Councils Act of 1892 gave cautious effect to 
his representations. The nominated members 
of the Viceregal and the Provincial Councils 
were increased, the non-official element 
strengthened, and the Indian Government 
was empowered to permit native members to 
be elected by their fellow-citizens. In another 
field the confidence of the Government was 
shown by accepting the offers of Native Chiefs 
to maintain regiments for imperial service. 
The Landsowne Viceroyalty also witnessed 
the settlement of differences with Abdur- 
rahman, who was seriously alarmed by the 
proposals of the Forward Policy. The Durand 
mission, dispatched to Cabul in 1893, re- 
moved his apprehensions. His subsidy was 
raised from £80,000 to £120,000 a year, and 
it was agreed to determine the still unsettled 
boundaries of Russia, India, and Afghanistan. 
Though his loyalty during subsequent frontier 
risings was open to suspicion, the relations of- 
the Governments have remained friendly. 

The rule of Lord Elgin (1894-1899) was a 
period of exceptional anxiety. The currency 
question had long been menacing. Owing to 
the increasing production of silver through- 
out the world the rupee had rapidly fallen 
since 1874, when it was v/orth nearly two 



INDIA AND PERSIA 169 

shillings. The loss to India, which had to 
find large sums in gold for interest, pensions, 
and foreign purchases, was serious. To meet 
the growing burden it was necessary to increase 
the salt tax and the income tax, and in 
1893 the coinage of silver was restricted. 
The relief was slight, and Lord Elgin, on 
his arrival, had to revive revenue duties, 
that on cotton goods being accompanied 
by a corresponding excise on Indian pro- 
ducts. The rupee fell to thirteen pence in 
1895, when it again began to rise. In 1899 
a gold currency was introduced, and the 
value of the rupee was fixed at sixteen pence. 
Though gold thus became the standard of value, 
silver rem-ains the coinage of the country 
and legal tender at the fixed rate. At the 
same time two other problems emerged. 
In 1896 plague appeared in Bombay, and 
efforts to eradicate it led to riots and fierce 
attacks in the press. Its ravages have 
continued ever since, and it carries off 
enormous numbers every year. In 1897 
a severe famine visited Central India, and 
despite the institution of gigantic relief works 
nearly a million lives were lost in British 
territory. 

Like his predecessors, Lord Elgin was con- 
fronted with grave anxieties on the North- West 
frontier. By the Durand agreement Chitral 
was declared within the British sphere In 



iro HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

1895 the native ruler was murdered and the 
British agent and garrison were besieged. 
After a heroic defence of seven weeks the 
fort was reheved by a large British force. 
The Rosebery Government decided to with- 
draw from Chitral; but Salisbury, on resum- 
ing office, determined to retain it, and ordered 
the construction of a road through the 
mountains. A year later the whole frontier 
was in flames, the Mullahs preaching a holy 
war, and the tribesmen watching with anger 
the extension of the British zone. A rising 
began in 1897 among the Swats, Mohmands, 
and Afridis, and the insurrection became 
so formidable that an army of 60,000 men 
was despatched to the Tirah district. By 
the end of the year the resistance was broken, 
but it was not till late in 1898 that the con- 
flict was over and the Khyber Pass re- 
opened. 

While some Viceroys are mere figure- 
heads, Lord Curzon, who arrived in 1899, 
was the undisputed ruler of India. His first 
task was the liquidation of the frontier 
problem. The British forces were gradually 
withdrawn from the Khyber and other 
advanced posts, and their places taken by 
tribal levies, the tribes being informed that 
their independence was safe so long as order 
was maintained. A new frontier province 
was created by separation from the Punjab 



INDIA AND PERSIA 171 

in 1901, a step that has been followed by 
almost uninterrupted peace. In domestic 
affairs the Viceroyalty opened badly with a 
renewal of famine in 1900, more costly in 
life and money than that of 1897. But 
after its conclusion the financial situation 
rapidly improved, and the salt tax was 
greatly reduced. The ship appeared to be 
entering calmer water, and the opportunity 
was seized to overhaul every department of 
State by searching commissions of inquiry. 
An attempt was made to bring the system of 
report writing within reasonable limits. A 
new Department of Commerce and Industry 
was established, with a representative on 
the Viceroy's Council. On the advice of 
Lord Kitchener, the Commander-in-Chief, the 
distribution of the army was changed and 
the troops furnished with more efficient 
weapons. A drastic measure was carried 
to prevent the alienation of land in the 
Punjab. The severe condemnation of the 
police by the Frazer Commission led to a 
slight increase of pay, but not to the radical 
reforms that were needed. Steps were taken 
for the conservation of the priceless monu- 
ments of Indian art. Prim_ary schools were 
increased, and an effort was made to save 
older students from the moral contagion 
of city life. 
Lord Curzon laboured with unflagging 



172 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

energy and superb devotion ; but his method 
of government resembled that of the Philo- 
sophic Despots of the eighteenth century. 
Though he sternly punished the ill-treatment 
of Indians by Europeans, he had little sym- 
pathy with the political aspirations that 
were stirring among educated natives. He 
boycotted the National Congress, diminished 
the representative element on the Calcutta 
Municipal Council, and infuriated the Bengalis 
by reflections on their truthfulness. Finally, 
on his return from England in 1904, he took 
a step which led directly to the dangerous 
crisis of the following years. Bengal had 
already thrown off the North- West Provinces 
and Assam, and a population of over 80 
millions made a further partition desirable. 
Friendly discussions with the leaders of 
native opinion might have led to an accept- 
able compromise ; but the opportunity of 
readjustment by consent was thrown away. 
A new province was created in 1905 by a 
fusion of Assam with a large slice of Eastern 
Bengal, despite the passionate protests of 
the Congress party. If it was not the greatest 
political blunder since the Mutiny, it played 
directly into the hands of the extreme party 
which aims at the overthrow of British 
rule. 

The last year of Lord Curzon's term 
witnessed the dispatch of an expedition to 



INDIA AND PERSIA 173 

Lhassa. The Hermit Kingdom had steadily 
repulsed the advances made to it since the 
time of Warren Hastings. When Tibetan 
troops invaded the Protected State of 
Sikkim in 1886, the Government opened 
negotiations with China as suzerain of Tibet, 
and signed a treaty in 1890 establishing 
commercial posts across the frontier. The 
Tibetans, however, refused all intercourse 
and returned letters unopened. Such con- 
temptuous treatment seemed to Lord Curzon 
damaging to British prestige ; and when the 
Dalai Lama engaged in negotiations with 
Russia he obtained leave to send an armed 
mission under Colonel Younghusband. The 
advance was but feebly resisted. The sacred 
city was entered, the Dalai Lama fled, and 
a treaty was made with his successor, pro- 
viding for a Resident in Lhassa, facilities 
for trade, and the retention of the Chumbi 
valley while an indemnity was paid by 
instalments. The treaty was substantially 
modified by the Home Government. When 
it thus became clear that Great Britain had 
no desire to intervene in Tibetan affairs the 
dormant Chinese suzerainty was vigorously 
reasserted. The Power that gained by 
the Younghusband expedition was not India, 
but China. 

In 1905 Lord Curzon resigned, refusing 
to accept Lord Kitchener's proposals for the 



174 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

reorganisation of the military department, 
and receiving no support from home. His 
successor, Lord Minto, lacked the knowledge 
and ability of his predecessor ; but he felt 
genuine sympathy with the ideals of educated 
Indians. The appointment of Mr. Morley 
to the India Office almost at the same time 
further emphasised the change from the old 
order. The Viceroy and Secretary of State 
were in agreement as to the need both of 
generous political concessions and of un- 
flinching repression of violence. Great ex- 
pectations were aroused among the Congress 
politicians by the appointment of the dis- 
tinguished thinker from whom they had 
learned the principles of Liberalism ; but 
his refusal to modify the partition of Bengal 
provoked intense disappointment. The 
Swadeshi movement began, European goods 
were boycotted in parts of Bengal, and 
several Europeans were murdered. The 
Government replied by drastic laws against 
seditious meetings, the press, and the use of 
explosives. Tilak was sentenced to six years 
imprisonment, and on two occasions the 
Regulation of 1818 was revived. The 
deportation of men of high character and 
position without charge or trial aroused 
indignation in England, and led numbers 
of Indian politicians to despair of the Govern- 
ment. The National Congress split in two 



INDIA AND PERSIA 175 

at Surat in 1908, the extremists parting 
company with the moderates represented by 
Gokhale. 

While the campaign of repression was in 
progress a far-reaching scheme of reform 
was being elaborated. A bold step was 
taken in 1909 by the appointment of an 
Indian barrister as Legal Member of the 
Viceroy's Executive Council, and of two 
Indians to the Council of the Secretary of 
State. The Councils Act of 1909 constituted 
a notable advance on that of 1892. A large 
addition was made to the membership of the 
Viceregal and Provincial Legislative Councils, 
an official majority being retained on the 
former alone. Special safeguards for the 
interests of the Mohammedan minority were 
inserted. The Executive Councils of Madras 
and Bombay were to be enlarged from two 
to four, one to be an Indian, and Executive 
Councils were foreshadowed for the other 
provinces. Greater latitude was permitted 
in regard to criticism and debate. The 
reform scheme was welcomed both in India 
and England as wise and generous, and a 
more hopeful feeling was already manifest 
when Lord Minto and Lord Morley laid 
down their burden in 1910. Though they 
failed to mollify the root and branch op- 
ponents of British rule, they opened up a 
fruitful field of common activity between the 



176 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 



4 



bureaucracy and the leaders of native opinio 
That Lord Hardinge desired to work th 
new system in the spirit of its authors was 
quickly shown by his cordial reception of Sir 
William Wedderburn, the President of the 
National Congress. 

The history of Persia during the last 
quarter of a century is one of increasing 
degradation, followed by a partially successful 
attempt at reform. While Nasreddin was a 
virile despot, his son Muzaffer-ed-din, who 
ascended the throne in 1890, was amiable 
and effeminate, squandering his country's 
resources in costly journeys to Europe, and 
for the first time incurring a foreign debt. 
In 1899 the custom houses were placed 
under the control of Belgian officials, and 
in 1900 and 1902 Russian loans were 
negotiated. The gradual mortgaging of the 
country to Russia was watched with jealousy 
by Great Britain, and with indignation by 
the long-suffering Persians. A Constitution 
had been demanded during the reign of 
Nasreddin by the great Mussulman teacher 
Jamaleddin, and in 1891 a passionate outcry 
greeted the grant of a Tobacco Monopoly to 
an English company. The concession was 
revoked at the cost of half a million. 

Though occasional riots occurred in the 
provinces, there was no further explosion in 
Teheran till 1905, when a number of merchants 



INDIA AND PERSIA 177 

and mullahs took sanctuary in a mosque in 
protest against the Grand Vizier. The Shah 
promised to dismiss his adviser. The pro- 
testers returned, but the Minister remained. 
A second Bast occurred in 1906, when about 
14,000 citizens took refuge in the grounds of 
the British Legation. This time the demand 
was for a Parliament, which the Shah re- 
luctantly granted. A Constitution was drawn 
up, newspapers and political clubs sprang 
into life, and the National Assembly met in 
October. Muzaffer-ed-din died in 1907, and 
his son, Mohammed Ah, who had won a bad 
reputation as Governor of Tabriz, quickly 
showed his dislike of the Constitution. The 
first Budget cut down pensions and sinecures, 
and turned the annual deficit into a surplus 
without fresh taxation. But the reduction 
of the Shah's civil list intensified his hostility 
to the Mejliss. He was only prevented from 
executing his Ministers by the intervention 
of the British charge d'affaires, and early 
in 1908 an attempt was made on his life. 
In June he fled to his Summer Palace, 
whence he carried out a coup d^itat with the 
aid of Liakhoff, a Russian officer, and the 
Cossack Brigade. The Parliament House 
was bombarded, Liakhoff was appointed 
Military Governor of Teheran, and the 
reformers fied for their lives. The Con- 
stitutionalists held out in Tabriz during the 



178 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

winter, closely invested by the royalist 
forces. When the fall of the city became 
imminent Russian troops crossed the frontier 
to its relief. 

When the Constitutional cause had seemed 
to be lost its fortunes suddenly brightened. 
Russia had shown that the Shah could no 
longer hope for her moral support. The 
vigorous tribe of the Baktiaris, which had 
already declared for the Constitution, now 
marched to Teheran, entered the city after 
fighting, and compelled the Shah to abdicate. 
His youthful son was placed on the throne, the 
Mejliss was recalled, and the work of reform 
resumed. But the task was difficult and 
the actors inexperienced. The presence of 
Russian troops in the north prevented out- 
breaks, but damaged the prestige of the 
Government. In the south the roads were so 
insecure that in 1910 Great Britain threatened 
to police them by a Persian force led by 
officers drawn from the Indian army. Despite 
their urgent need of money the Ministers 
refused to raise a foreign loan on the only terms 
on which Russia and England were prepared to 
assist. The acceptance of the Regency early 
in 1911 by Nasr el-Mulk, an alumnus of 
Balliol, has been followed by a distinct 
improvement in the situation, which the 
employment of American financiers may be 
expected to confirm. 



INDIA AND PERSIA 179 

Throughout Asia two currents are clearly 
visible. On the one hand, there is a desire to 
imitate the West, to learn its secrets, to 
borrow its skill. On the other, there is a 
deep-seated determination to retain and even 
to emphasise traditional ideals and character- 
istics. The tendencies meet not only in 
the same nation but in the same individual. 
In some cases a return to older practices is 
urged by the very men who have drunk most 
deeply at the springs of Western learning. 
The awakening of the East has been rendered 
possible by the appropriation of the ideas and 
methods of the West ; but the enduring 
result is the affirmation of its own personality. 



CHAPTER VIII 

th;e partition of Africa 

The partition of Africa has taken place 
with Ughtning rapidity during the years 
covered by this volume. The Powers, seek- 
ing outlets for their population or markets 
for their trade and debarred from South 
America by the Monroe doctrine, turned to 
the Dark Continent. A generation ago, 
European settlements were patches on the 
coast. To-day, only three independent States, 
Abyssinia, Morocco, and the little negro 
republic of Liberia, remain. Yet while the 
government has passed into white hands, the 
greater part of Africa is closed to white men 
by the iron law of nature. 



Contrary to the expectation and desire of 
the Gladstone Ministry on intervening in 
Egypt on behalf of Ismail's creditors, the 
British occupation has continued for a genera- 
tion. When Sir Evelyn Baring arrived in 

i8o 



EGYPT 181 

Cairo in 1883 he found a gigantic task awaiting 
him. Arabi's revolt had been quelled by 
[British troops, but the dislike of foreign 
interference was undiminished. The Treasury 
was empty, and the State owed 100 millions. 
Turkey watched the settlement of a Great 
Power in her province with jealous eyes, and 
France waited impatiently for the promised 
evacuation. In the year of his arrival an 
Egyptian army, led by General Hicks, was 
annihilated by the Mahdi in Kordofan, and in 
1884 another force under General Baker was 
routed. As the Khedivial army was incapable 
of fighting, Gordon was sent to withdraw the 
garrisons and civilians from the interior, but 
ruined his chance of success by proclaiming 
the abandonment of the Sudan and disobeying 
orders. He was surrounded in Khartum, 
which fell in 1885 after a prolonged siege. On 
Gordon's death the whole country passed into 
the hands of the Mahdi. 

The loss of the Sudan allowed the British 
Agent to devote his attention to internal 
reform. In 1885 he obtained the permission 
of the Powers to raise a loan of nine millions 
to pay off accumulated deficits and to extend 
irrigation. In 1888 deficits ceased, and the 
financial position steadily improved. No tax 
but the tobacco duty has been increased, 
taxation has been remitted, railways, canals, 
and public works have been provided out of 



182 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

revenue, and Egyptian credit has risen to the 
level of many European States. But the 
assistance of the Government was direct as 
well as indirect. Mehemet Ali and his 
successors had realised the importance of 
irrigation without being able to turn it to 
much practical account. A barrage had been 
built below Cairo to irrigate the Delta, but 
the foundations were so weak that it was of 
little use till it had been overhauled by British 
engineers. In 1898 a gigantic dam was con- 
structed at Assuan, which began to work in 
1901 and has since been raised. The economic 
stability of the peasant has been strengthened 
by the provision of agricultural banks, and 
his life rendered easier by the virtual abolition 
of forced labour on public works. 

The restoration of financial equilibrium 
and the increase of the productive power of the 
soil were the most urgent tasks ; but efforts to 
introduce the equipment of a civilised State 
were made in other directions. The adminis- 
tration of justice among natives began to 
improve when Sir John Scott was appointed 
Judicial Adviser in 1891. Egyptian judges 
have proved themselves worthy of their trust, 
bribes have become rare, and torture has 
disappeared. The standard of the police has 
been raised by the appointment of British 
inspectors. Public health has steadily im- 
proved, and travelling eye hospitals have 



EGYPT 183 

reduced ophthalmia. Village schools have 
been encouraged by grants-in-aid, and tech- 
nical colleges have been instituted. 

The disasters in the Sudan had arisen 
not only from cowardice but from the arbitrary 
methods by which the soldiers were recruited. 
Good pay and good food soon produced a better 
tone, and self-confidence was strengthened 
by the co-operation of British troops. How 
great the change wrought by the Sirdars, 
Sir Evelyn Wood and Sir Herbert Kitchener, 
was shown in the reconquest of the Sudan. 
Dervish attacks on Egypt were repulsed, 
and in 1896 the first step was taken by the 
advance to Dongola. The railway was pushed 
forward, Berber was captured in 1897, and 
in 1898 the forces of the Khalifa, who had 
succeeded the Mahdi, were defeated at the 
AthaTa River and annihilated at Omdurman. 
The Khalifa fled into Kordofan and was 
killed in action a year later. The Sudan 
henceforth belonged to Britain and Egypt 
jointly. The lease of the great province of 
the Bahr-el-Ghazal to the Congo Free State in 
1894 was annulled in 1906, and the Lado En- 
clave, the only district which French jealousies 
had allowed King Leopold to administer, 
reverted on his death to Anglo-Egyptian 
control. Except for some petty revolts, the 
vast area has enjoyed a period of peace, and 
the charge on Egyptian revenues has steadily 



184 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

decreased. The Red Sea has been con- 
nected by railway with the Nile, while the 
Egyptian line has been extended to Khartum, 
and the White Nile has been cleared of sudd. 

Though financial equilibrium had been 
restored, the hands of the British Agent were 
to a large extent tied by the Commission 
of the Debt established in 1876. Thus, 
when it was proposed that Egypt should 
pay for the reconquest of the Sudan, France 
and Russia vetoed the scheme, and the 
British Government lent the money. An 
immense relief was experienced when the 
Anglo-French Treaty of 1904 secured the 
withdrawal of European opposition and gave 
a free hand in finance. On the other hand the 
Capitulations, or treaty rights possessed by 
the Powers, still prevent either the taxation 
or control of the ever-increasing army of 
European residents. When Lord Cromer 
resigned in 1907, after twenty-four years of 
benevolent despotism, he left the country in 
the enjoyment of a prosperity greater perhaps 
than it had ever known. 

On the material side the work of England 
in Egypt has been highly successful ; but 
the more difficult problem of winning the 
confidence and affection of the people remains 
to be solved. The generation which had 
suffered from Ismail is dying out, and the 
increased prosperity of the peasant is largely 



EGYPT 185 

discounted by a sensational rise in the cost 
of living. Large numbers of Egyptians resent 
the continued domination of a foreign Power 
which has repeatedly promised to withdraw. 
The Legislative Council and the General 
Assembly instituted by Lord Dufferin in 
1883 have never possessed real authority. 
On the death of Tewfik in 1892 his son Abbas 
vainly endeavoured to assert himself by 
choosing his Ministers ; but the Nationalist 
movement grew rapidly in the last years of 
Lord Cromer's rule, and found a leader in 
a young lawyer and journalist, Mustapha 
Kamel. The unpopularity of the Occupa- 
tion was increased by the vindictive punish- 
ments inflicted on the Denshawi villagers in 
1906 for an attack on British officers engaged 
in pigeon-shooting, and was further revealed 
by the assassination of the Coptic Premier, 
Boutros Pasha, and the rejection of the 
Government's proposals in regard to the Suez 
Canal by the General Assembly. Sir Eldon 
Gorst, who succeeded Lord Cromer, was 
prepared to go somewhat further towards 
meeting the wishes of moderate Nationalism ; 
but the British residents protested that his 
concessions were weakening British prestige. 
So threatening did the situation become 
that in 1910 Sir Edward Grey announced 
that there was no intention of evacuating 
Egypt and that attacks on the Government 



186 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

would be sternly repressed. Since this de- 
claration the situation has been outwardly- 
more tranquil ; but the conflict with the 
Nationalist press continues, and the events 
of the last few years have revealed how 
precarious is the foundation on which British 
rule in Egypt rests. 

II 

While France has lost her privileged posi- 
tion on the Nile, she now dominates the 
huge north-west shoulder of the Dark Con- 
tinent. Algeria, the conquest of Louis Philippe, 
has been a drain on the mother country ; 
but Tunis has made more rapid progress. 
The Treaty of Algeciras recognised her 
special position in Morocco. A series of 
outrages led in 1907 to the occupation of 
Udja, near the Algerian frontier, and of 
Casablanca and the Shawia district on the 
Atlantic coast. In 1911, the Sultan being 
hard pressed by rebel tribes, French troops 
were dispatched to Fez to restore his authority. 
The probability that Morocco will be engulfed 
is increased by the fact that the vast territory 
to the south and east is now included in 
the French sphere of influence. An advance 
into the interior from Senegal was under- 
taken by Faidherbe during the Second Empire, 
and in 1880 began a further move to the 



CENTRAL AFRICA 187 

Upper Niger, though Timbuctoo was not 
occupied till 1903. When the scramble for 
Africa commenced, France determined to 
secure a foothold on the Guinea Coast. The 
Ivory Coast was annexed in 1891, and in 
1892 the little kingdom of Dahomey was 
conquered. Meanwhile, desiring that no 
European Power should drive a wedge be- 
tween her new empire on the Niger and her 
Mediterranean colonies, she obtained in 1890 
British recognition of her sphere of influence 
as far east as Lake Chad. 

Farther south French settlements had ex- 
isted on the Congo coast since Louis Philippe. 
During the early years of the Third Republic 
De Brazza pushed far into the interior simul- 
taneously with Stanley, keeping mainly to the 
northern banks of the great river. When 
the Berlin Conference created the Congo Free 
State, France insisted on a large part of the 
western and northern watershed. Starting 
from their new colony, the French Congo, 
missions pushed north to Lake Chad, thus 
opening up an all-French route to the Medi- 
terranean. By the Anglo-French Conven- 
tion of 1899 Great Britain recognised French 
claims to Wadai. Thus, with the exception 
of Liberia and the European coastal colonies, 
the whole of North- West Africa from Tunis 
to the Congo, from Senegal to Lake Chad, is 
scheduled as the French sphere of influence. 



188 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

France is in mileage the greatest African 
power ; but a large part of her claim is 
unconquered and even unexplored, while 
the Sahara can scarcely be reckoned as a 
marketable asset. Her rule, moreover, is 
exposed to danger from the Mohammedan 
Sultanates of Central Africa and from the 
mysterious power of the Senussi. On the 
other side of Africa, France has annexed 
Madagascar. A protectorate was established 
over the island in 1885 after severe fighting ; 
but the inhabitants refused to acquiesce, and 
the final step was taken in 1895, when a 
French army landed and captured the capital 
Antananarivo. The Queen was deposed, and 
in 1896 the island became a French colony. 

The largest State in Central Africa is the 
Belgian Congo. From the beginning of his 
reign King Leopold had followed the explora- 
tion of the Dark Continent with passionate 
interest. At his invitation a Geographical 
Congress assembled at Brussels in 1876, from 
which arose an International Association 
for the Civilisation of Central Africa, with 
himself as President. Each nation was to 
undertake a section of the work. But the 
national committees became independent, 
and the Association itself was soon a purely 
Belgian body. The journey of Stanley from 
the Indian Ocean to the Great Lakes, and 
from the Great Lakes along the Congo to 



CENTRAL AFRICA 189 

the Atlantic (1874-77), riveted the King's 
attention on the Congo basin. A " Committee 
for the Study of the Upper Congo" was 
founded, and in 1879 Stanley was dispatched 
to conclude treaties with the chiefs. In 
1884, when forty stations had been founded 
and five steamers were on the river, the Com- 
mittee of Study changed its name to the 
International Association of the Congo, and 
was recognised by the United States. At 
this moment the new State was threatened 
by a great danger. Portugal persuaded 
Great Britain to recognise her claims over 
the mouth of the river. Leopold immediately 
concluded an agreement with France, offer- 
ing the pre-emption of his territory in return 
for French recognition. Bismarck added his 
protest, and the Anglo-Portuguese treaty 
remained unratified. Germany now recog- 
nised the Congo State, and issued invitations 
to a Conference at Berlin to discuss out- 
standing questions of African colonisation. 
The Conference recognised the Congo State, 
and the King undertook to ameliorate the 
condition of the natives and to allow freedom 
of commerce. 

A year or two after reaching the summit of 
his ambition Leopold began to betray the 
conditions of his trust. Unoccupied land was 
declared to belong to the State. Companies 
received concessions to collect rubber, and 



190 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

paid half the profits to the King. In 1891 
permission was given by the Powers to levy 
import duties, and practically the whole 
trade of the country was soon a Belgian 
monopoly. The most valuable parts of the 
vast territory were appropriated as the 
Domaine de la Couronne. The Belgians com- 
mitted or allowed incredible cruelties. A' 
crushing tribute of rubber was demanded 
from the villages, and among the penalties 
for non-payment was mutilation. The vast 
country was ruled by a handful of ill-paid and 
uncontrolled officials. Stokes, an English 
missionary who had become a trader, was 
suspected of furnishing the natives with 
powder, and hanged without trial. A rail- 
way was built from the coast to Stanley 
Pool, where the river enters the rapids, and 
some of the more obvious necessities of 
civilisation were introduced into the towns ; 
but the regime was one of ruthless exploita- 
tion. Harrowing tales were sent home by 
the missionaries, and confirmed by the 
official report of Mr. Casement, British 
Consul at Boma. Meanwhile the Aborigines 
Protection Society urged the British Govern- 
ment in 1896 to take action. In 1897 Sir 
Charles Dilke demanded an International 
Conference to save the natives. When the 
Government refused, the Congo Reform Asso- 
ciation was founded, with Mr. Morel as secre- 



CENTRAL AFRICA 191 

tary. In 1903 Lord Lansdowne at length 
called the attention of the signatories of the 
Berlin Act to the breaches of its provisions. 
Leopold denied the right to intervene, and it 
was hinted that British action was prompted 
by selfish ambitions. 

Though the proceeds of " Red Rubber " 
were used to embellish Brussels and Ostend, 
and Belgium was made heir to the vast 
colonial empire by the King's will of 1889, 
the voice of criticism was at last raised by 
Vandervelde, the Socialist leader. The 
assent of Parliament to the King's assump- 
tion of the sovereignty in 1885 had been given 
without enthusiasm. When made his heir 
Belgium reluctantly advanced a million pounds 
in return for power to annex after ten years. 
When further assistance was needed in 1895 
the Government arranged to annex at once ; 
but public opinion was hostile, and the pro- 
ject dropped. Criticism, both at home and 
abroad, became so insistent that in 1904 
the King felt constrained to appoint a Com- 
mission of Inquiry. Its report revealed such 
deplorable conditions that sweeping reforms 
were at once promised, and in 1906 annexa- 
tion began to be discussed. A treaty was 
concluded in 1907 by which the Congo State 
was transferred to Belgium ; but the opposi- 
tion to the retention of the Domaine de la 
Couronne led to an additional Act in 1908 



192 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

providing for its purchase. With the acces- 
sion of King Albert in 1909 a brighter era 
seemed to Jbe dawning. A new system of 
government was announced, the abohtion 
of forced labour was promised, and the Congo 
basin was gradually opened to foreign trade. 
France and Germany at once recognised the 
transfer, but the British and American 
Governments withhold recognition till they 
are satisfied that the abuses have disappeared. 
The German colonies in Africa date from 
the scramble of 1884. In 1878 a German 
branch of the International African Associa- 
tion was founded, and both the hinterland 
of Zanzibar and the Southern Congo were 
explored. The first definite step towards 
colonisation was taken in South-West Africa, 
where for many years German missionaries 
had worked among the Damaras and Herreros. 
In 1883 Liideritz, a Bremen merchant, estab- 
lished a trading station at Angra Pequena 
in Damaraland ; and, after waiting to see if 
Great Britain desired to annex the country, 
Bismarck declared the coast from Angola to 
Cape Colony under German protection in 
1884. During the same summer Togoland, 
a small kingdom to the east of the British 
Gold Coast, and the Cameroons, a large tract 
in the bend of the Gulf of Guinea which ulti- 
mately extended inland as far as Lake Chad, 
were declared German Protectorates. In 



CENTRAL AFRICA 193 

I the autumn Dr. Peters, the German Rhodes, 
landed at Zanzibar. Pushing into the in- 
terior he signed treaties with the chiefs, and 
founded the German East African Company, 
to which the Government granted a Charter, 
despite the energetic protests of the Sultan 
of Zanzibar. In 1886 the respective spheres 
of Great Britain, Germany, and Zanzibar 
were deUmited. The German Company was 
too weak to repress a dangerous revolt among 
the Arabs in 1888, and an Imperial Com- 
missioner was sent to take over the Govern- 
ment. In 1890 Germany recognised a British 
Protectorate over Zanzibar in return for the 
cession of Heligoland, and carried her own 
frontier to the Congo State. From that 
time German East Africa has had a fairly 
prosperous career. The fortunes of German 
South- West Africa, on the other hand, have 
been chequered. Incessant conflict with the 
Hottentots filled the first decade ; and after 
a peaceful interval a formidable and costly 
rebellion broke out in 1903 among the Herreros 
in the north, which was not quelled till 1908. 
The Portuguese colonies, the oldest on the 
continent, have been passed in the race, 
and a bold attempt to connect Mozambique 
with Angola brought an ultimatum from 
Great Britain in 1890. Despite this severe 
rebuff, a measure of prosperity has come 
with the railways into the interior, Delagoa 

G 



194, HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

Bay forming the gate of the Transvaal and 
Beira an outlet for Rhodesia. On the west 
coast Angola has been the scene of raids 
for the supply of servicaes for the cocoa 
plantations on the islands of Principe and 
San Thome. 

The growth of British territory in Central 
Africa has been scarcely less rapid than in 
the north and south. On the west coast King 
Prempeh was dethroned and Ashanti annexed 
in 1896, an expedition was dispatched to 
Benin in 1897 to avenge a massacre, and in 
1898 a rising was suppressed in Sierra Leone. 
But by far the greatest achievement has 
been the building up of Nigeria, which now 
stretches inland to the shores of Lake Chad. 
In 1879 Sir George Goldie amalgamated the 
British firms trading on the river into the 
United African Company. Attracted by the 
development of trade two French Companies 
were formed, but were bought out before the 
meeting of the Berlin Conference, which 
approved the British claim to a protectorate. 
In 1885 a treaty with the Sultan of Sokoto 
secured to the Company the trading rights 
of that thickly populated country and the 
control of its foreign relations. A Charter 
was granted to the Royal Niger Company in 
1886, with control over the banks of the 
river, while in 1893 the outlying districts 
both east and west were organised as a 



CENTRAL AFRICA 195 

Protectorate under the Crown. A brisk 
competition with France for influence on the 
Middle Niger continued till the spheres were 
settled in 1898. By 1899 the task had out- 
grown the strength of the Chartered Company, 
which was bought out by the Crown and 
became Northern Nigeria. In 1902 the 
Fulahs revolted ; but Kano was occupied 
and the kingdom of Bornu conquered. The 
Niger Coast Protectorate became Southern 
Nigeria, which was united to Lagos in 1906. 
In 1911 the railway reached Kano, nine 
hundred miles from the sea. 

The East African Convention between 
Great Britain and Germany in 1886 did not 
prevent friction in the hinterland. In 1890 
Dr. Peters entered Uganda and persuaded 
the King to place himself under German 
protection ; but in the same year Germany 
surrendered her claim. The British East 
Africa Company, which had received a 
Charter in 1887, found the new territory 
too great a burden and gave notice of with- 
drawal in 1892. Sir Gerald Portal was sent 
to report on the situation in 1893, and by 
his advice Uganda was retained and a Pro- 
tectorate proclaimed in 1894, In 1896 the 
Company sold its rights to the Imperial 
authorities, and the British East Africa 
Protectorate was constituted. The Uganda 
railway, begun in 1896, reached Victoria 
62 



196 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

Nyanza in 1909. Though Mombasa and the 
coast-line are unhealthy, Nairobi and the 
highlands have proved themselves well suited 
to European residents. Farther north the 
Imperial Government withdrew from the 
interior of Somaliland in 1910 after a decade 
of costly and ineffectual strife. 



Ill 

The most important event in the recent 
history of the Dark Continent is the building 
up of a great empire in South Africa under 
the British flag. The premature annexation 
of the Transvaal in 1877 led to a successful 
revolt of the Boers in 1881, and to a harvest 
of racial hostility. The discovery of gold 
on the Wit water srand in 1886 was followed 
by an enormous influx of Europeans into 
the conservative farming community of the 
Transvaal. A great cosmopolitan city arose 
at Johannesburg within forty miles of 
Pretoria. Fearing that the immigrants 
would swamp their national life the Boers 
excluded the newcomers, whom they 
regarded as birds of passage, from any share 
in the political life of the country. Had the 
Government been reasonably efficient, the 
anomaly might have been tolerated ; but 
the regime of President Kruger was corrupt 



SOUTH AFRICA 197 

as wqII as reactionary. In vain did Lord 
Loch, the High Commissioner, visit Pre- 
toria in 1894 and warn the President that 
he must make concessions. In the follow- 
ing year the Netherlands Railway Company 
raised their terms so high that the Cape 
traders sent their goods by wagon across 
the Vaal River. Kruger retaliated by 
closing the drifts, but yielded to a British 
ultimatum. 

While Kruger stood out as the champion 
of Boer conservatism, Rhodes gradually 
emerged as the representative of British 
claims and ideals. He had settled in South 
Africa in 1870 and rapidly made his fortune 
in the diamond mines at Kimberley. Enter- 
ing the Cape Parliament in 1884 he at once 
became a force, and began to win converts 
for his grandiose visions of expansion. By 
his advice the Imperial Government kept 
open the road to the north by dispatching 
the Warren expedition in 1884 to evict the 
Transvaal Boers who had settled in Bechuana- 
land. Southern Bechuanaland became a 
Crown colony and the North a Protectorate. 
In 1888 Lobengula, King of the Matabele, 
granted a concession of mineral rights to 
Rhodes' agents. In 1889 Rhodes founded 
the British South Africa Company for the 
development of the interior, dreaming of a 
dominion that should stretch to the Zambesi 



198 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

and beyond. In 1890 the pioneer expedition 1 
set forth, guided by Mr. Selous, the famous 
hunter, and a fort was estabhshed at Salisbury 
in Mashonaland. The Transvaal withdrew 
its claim to the north of the Limpopo River ; 
and in 1891 an Anglo-Portuguese treaty was 
signed recognising Portuguese rights over 
the coast district of the Zambesi and British 
rights over Matabeleland, Mashonaland, and 
the districts beyond the great river. Part 
of the latter was entrusted to the Chartered 
Company under the name of Northern 
Rhodesia. A Protectorate was declared over 
Nyasaland, which in 1893 received the name 
of British Central Africa and in 1907 that 
of the Nyasaland Protectorate. The first 
crisis in the fortunes of the Company occurred 
in 1893, when the Matabele attacked the 
scattered settlers. The Company was 
victorious, Bulawayo, the Matabele capital, 
was taken, and Lobengula fled. A final 
revolt, mainly due to harsh treatment of the 
natives, broke out in 1896, but was terminated 
by a visit of Rhodes to the Matabele camp. 
A year later the railway reached Bulawayo, 
and an outlet to the coast was effected by a 
line from Salisbury to Beira. The expenses 
of the new State were so great that for many 
years large deficits were incurred, while 
friction arose between the settlers and the 
Company. In 1905 the railway crossed the 



SOUTH AFRICA 199 

Zambesi, and the vast, thinly - populated 
regions beyond are now divided into North- 
West and North-East Rhodesia, the former 
stretching to the Congo State, the latter 
to German East Africa and Lake Tan- 
ganyika. 

In 1895 Rhodes was the most successful 
as well as the most striking personality in 
South Africa. He was master of Kimberley, 
Prime Minister of Cape Colony, founder of 
Rhodesia, largely interested in the Rand 
mines, and on excellent terms with Hofmeyr 
and the Bond. Yet by a single false move 
he shattered his power and revived racial 
discord. Despairing of obtaining the redress 
of their grievances from Pretoria, the Out- 
landers determined to take the law inta 
their own hands. Rhodes offered the help 
of the Chartered Company's mounted police, 
whom he held in readiness on the western 
frontier. Dr. Jameson, their commander, 
was supplied with a letter pretending that 
the women and children of Johannesburg 
were in danger and summoning him to their 
defence. Differences arose as to what flag 
should be raised if the Outlanders were 
successful. Before agreement had been 
reached, Jameson crossed the frontier on 
December 29th, and was quickly compelled 
to surrender to a superior force of Boers. 
The whole of South Africa was convulsed 



200 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

by the Raid, and the Dutch reaUsed that 
they must stand together. Kruger's re- 
actionary government had become abhorrent 
to the progressive Boers, and in the Presi- 
dential election of 1894 he had won by 
a narrow majority ; but the Raid revived 
his waning power and made him the symbol 
of national independence. At the next 
election he obtained an immense majority, 
and in 1897 a military alliance was formed 
with the Orange River Colony. At the same 
time the Transvaal began to order large 
quantities of guns and ammunition from 
Europe. The country had been treacherously 
annexed in 1877 and treacherously attacked 
in 1895, and it was common prudence to be 
prepared for a further surprise. 

The mischief of the Raid was increased 
by the failure of the South Africa Committee 
to insist on the production of all the relevant 
documents and by the refusal of the British 
Government to inflict any punishment on 
Rhodes. The Dutch believed that the 
Colonial Office had known of the conspiracy 
and that the missing telegrams would have 
proved it. The relations of the two races 
became steadily worse, and men in both 
camps began to speak of a war for the 
supremacy of South Africa. The situation 
demanded exceptional tact on both sides if 
a rupture was to be avoided ; but tact was 



SOUTH AFRICA 201 

sadly lacking. Kruger was obstinate and 
narrow-minded. Mr. Chamberlain was un- 
fitted by temperament for the delicate tasks 
of diplomacy, and his assertion of suzerainty 
in a form at variance with Lord Derby's 
concessions in the London Convention of 
1884 was needlessly provocative. The 
situation was rendered still more critical by 
the speeches and dispatches of Sir Alfred 
Milner, who was appointed High Com- 
missioner in 1897. A monster petition from 
the Outlanders early in 1899 extracted a 
promise of intervention. Kruger and the 
High Commissioner met at Bloemfontein in 
May, but failed to reach a compromise. The 
discussion of naturalisation and franchise 
reforms lasted through the summer. In 
September troops were dispatched from 
England and India, and on October 9th the 
Transvaal Government issued an ultimatum. 
The responsibility for the war must be 
divided. A large share obviously falls to 
Kruger ; but as Krugerism was dying when 
the Raid gave it a new lease of life, the 
share of Rhodes must be pronounced at 
least as great. Even after the Raid a more 
tactful diplomacy in Downing Street and 
Cape Town might well have avoided the 
terrible conflict. 

The war began with the invasion of Natal, 
where the British troops, after victories at 



202 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

Talana Hill and Elandslaagte, fell back before 
superior numbers to Ladysmith. At the 
same time Mafeking and Kimberley were 
invested, and Cape Colony was invaded. 
With the arrival of Buller the British forces 
undertook the offensive, and the second 
stage of the war began. Methuen marched 
to the relief of Kimberley, but was hurled 
back at Magersfontein on December 10th. 
On the same day Gatacre was defeated at 
Stormberg, and at the end of the week 
Buller' s attempt to cross the Tugela at 
Colenso was repulsed by Botha, who had 
become Commander-in-Chief on the death 
of Joubert. The triple defeat revealed the 
magnitude of the struggle. Lord Roberts 
was appointed to the supreme command 
with Lord Kitchener to assist him, and the 
Colonies vied with one another in the dispatch 
of volunteers. The third stage in the war 
was reached when French's cavalry, making 
a detour of the Boer camp, relieved Kimberley, 
and Cronje, placed between two fires, fled 
from his entrenchments and surrendered with 
4000 men at Paardeberg. The capture of 
Cronje in February 1900 was the turning- 
point of the war. The Free State was 
quickly overrun and Bloemfontein was 
occupied. At the end of the same month 
Buller, after a costly repulse at Spion Kop, 
relieved Ladysmith and drove the Boers out 



SOUTH AFRICA 203 

of Natal. Maf eking, heroically defended by 
Baden-Powell, was relieved in May, and in 
June Lord Roberts occupied Johannesburg 
and Pretoria. Kruger fled to Europe, and 
the war entered on its fourth and final stage, 
in which the Boers fought not for victory but 
for honour, and De Wet revealed his skill 
as a guerrilla chief. The prolonged struggle 
brought increasing embitterment ; but 
neither overwhelming numbers, nor the whole- 
sale devastation of the country, nor the 
appalling mortality among the children in 
the Concentration Camps secured the uncon- 
ditional surrender which the Government 
were long unwise enough to demand. The 
Treaty of Vereeniging, signed in May 1902, 
while registering the loss of their independence, 
granted terms which brave men could accept 
without humiliation. 

The prolonged conflict turned a large part 
of South Africa into a desert. The Boer 
prisoners were brought back from India and 
St. Helena, and assisted by grants and loans. 
The mining community returned to Johan- 
nesburg ; but the mine-owners, finding a 
difficulty in obtaining native labour at the 
wages paid before the war, prevailed on the 
British Government to sanction the importa- 
tion of Chinese coolies. The victory of the 
Liberal party at the polls in 1906 was followed 
by important changes. The further im- 



204 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

portation of Chinese was forbidden, and full 
self-government was granted to the con- 
quered republics. The courageous generosity 
of the act struck the imagination of the world, 
and the conviction of Campbell-Bannerman 
that self-government alone could heal the 
wounds of war was abundantly justified by 
events. Racial bitterness steadily decreased 
when British and Dutch found themselves 
co-operating in the task of reconstruction. 
The Transvaal elections made General Botha 
Premier with a composite Cabinet. The 
Chinese, whose outbreaks had caused terror 
in the environs of Johannesburg, were gradu- 
ally repatriated, and their departure was 
followed by a steady increase in the output 
of the mines. 

Attention was soon turned to a problem 
of more than local importance. There were 
now four self-governing colonies, the interests 
of which touched at many points. Questions 
of tariffs, railways, and immigration invited 
common action, and the greatest of all prob- 
lems, that of the native races, suggested the 
union of the white governments for counsel 
and defence. A Convention met in secret 
session at Durban and later at Cape Town 
during the summer of 1908-1909 and framed 
a constitution, not federal but unitary, which 
was accepted by the colonies concerned and 
embodied in a Statute by the British Parlia- 



SOUTH AFRICA 205 

ment. General Botha, who was invited to 
form the first Ministry, obtained a working 
majority at the elections, and the Union 
Parliament was opened in Cape Town in 1910 
by the Duke of Connaught. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE NEW WORLD 



The war between North and South was 
followed by a rapid restoration of material 
prosperity and by the uncontested pre- 
dominance of the party under whose auspices 
the victory had been won. But the pro- 
longed tenure of office during the period of 
reconstruction demoralised the Republicans. 
General Grant failed as conspicuously in the 
White House as he had shone on the battle- 
field, and a lax spirit invaded the ad- 
ministration. A demand for new methods 
began to make itself heard under Garfield, 
and it was weariness rather than enthusiasm 
for the Democrats which decided the election 
of 1884. The Republican candidate, Blaine, 
was believed to have used his position as 
Speaker to enrich himself by dealings with 
the corporations, and the Mugwumps, or 
reforming Republicans, led by Carl Schurz, 
did not hesitate to vote for Cleveland. 

3o6 



THE UNITED STATES 207 

The new President was confronted by a 
formidable task. His Mugwump supporters 
urged him to stand outside party ; but he 
was determined to act as a Democrat, and 
he introduced large numbers of Democrats 
into the Civil Service, which had been a 
Republican monopoly for a generation. As 
the Senate was hostile, party legislation and 
an independent foreign policy were impos- 
sible ; yet Cleveland, for the first time since 
Lincoln, stamped his individuality on the 
life of the State, and his sturdy independ- 
ence was shown by his repeated veto of bills 
to extend pensions to the survivors or 
dependents of those who had fought in the 
Civil War. The gravest problem that he 
had to face was labour discontent. In the 
early days of Californian development Chinese 
labourers had played a useful part ; but as 
their numbers increased the dangers of a 
large alien population which could not be 
Americanised and whose low standard of 
living threatened to drive the American 
workman from the field became apparent. 
In 1882 Chinese immigration was forbidden 
for ten years, and in 1888 the exclusion was 
made permanent at the instance of the 
Pacific States, where riotous attacks on the 
Chinese quarters were frequent. But it was 
not only in the West that troubles arose. 
The Knights of Labour had come to number 



208 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

over half a million and had grown to be a 
power in the land. In 1886 a serious conflict 
with the police occurred in Chicago ; but a 
reaction of opinion followed the riot. The 
Knights were touched with anarchy, and the 
loosely knit structure crumbled to pieces, its 
place being taken by the American Federation 
of Labour. 

Cleveland was not the only man who 
traced economic discontent in large measure 
to the high tariff imposed during the Civil 
War, and in 1887 he devoted his annual 
Message to the subject. A wholesale re- 
duction of duties passed the House, but 
was rejected in the Senate. In the Presi- 
dential campaign of 1888, General Harrison 
obtained a small majority, and the Republicans 
regained control of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. They had learned their lesson. 
The country realised that it could turn 
to the Democrats without danger, and the 
victorious party knew that the days of 
Grant and Blaine could not be restored. 

The wounds of war had been healed, 
but a wide divergence of opinion separated 
the south and west from the east. It was 
the difference between an agricultural and 
an industrial population. The former asked 
for a paper or silver currency to facilitate 
business exchange, resented the power of 
the railways and capitalist corporations-, and 



THE UNITED STATES 209 

believed that the small farmer and trader 
were being sacrificed to their great com- 
petitors. The Democrats, drawing their 
strength from the west and south, were 
the chief champions of currency changes ; 
but the Republicans were unwilling to be 
outdone. In 1890 the Sherman Act com- 
pelled the Treasury to buy 4| million ounces 
of silver monthly, paying for it in Treasury 
notes redeemable on demand in gold or 
silver coin, and, when redeemed, to be re- 
issued. The measure did not satisfy the 
advocates of sound money, but was accepted 
by them in order to avoid a bill for the free 
coinage of silver at 16 to 1. In the same 
year a law to restrain trusts was carried^ 
and the McKinley tariff largely increased the 
duties on imports. 

Harrison, though estimable and honesty 
possessed no political ability, and Blaine,^ 
his brilliant Secretary of State, inspired no 
confidence. The Democrats won back their 
majority in the House in 1890, and in 1892 
Cleveland was elected for a second time. 
A candidate of the new People's party re- 
ceived over a million votes. The Populists 
maintained that the nation was on the verge 
of moral and material ruin, the result of 
capitalist oppression. The remedies were to 
be found in free coinage of silver at the ratio 
of 16 to 1, a graduated income tax, State 



210 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

ownership of railways, and State loans to 
the people. Many members of the older 
parties also favoured the demand that gold, 
silver, and paper should be equally valid. 
Cleveland, on the other hand, denounced all 
tampering with the standards of value. During 
his first presidency he had in vain urged the 
suspension of compulsory coinage of 2 
to 4 million silver dollars monthly im- 
posed on the State in 1878, on the ground 
that they were worth less than their face 
value as compared with gold, that less than 
a quarter of them had found their way into 
circulation, and that as they were legal 
tender they were quickly returned to the 
Treasury. The situation had been rendered 
worse by the Sherman Act. There was 
now outstanding a mass of notes which, when 
redeemed, had to be reissued. The hoard- 
ing of gold increased, and it was difficult 
to obtain money for current business. If 
the Government ceased to pay in gold, silver 
would become the standard of values, pro- 
perty would lose half its value, and credit 
would collapse. In 1893 the situation became 
critical, and on his inauguration Cleveland 
called a special session of Congress, demand- 
ing the repeal of the purchase clause of the 
Sherman Act. The Senate delayed the bill 
for weeks, while business was paralysed. 
Finally, in October, it gave way. 



THE UNITED STATES 211 

Though the revenue suffered from the 
panic, Cleveland turned to the revision of 
the tariff. The free list was largely ex- 
tended, the rates generally reduced and 
based on value. But the Senate raised 
the duties and removed several articles 
from the free list. The House accepted 
the mutilated measure in default of anything 
better, and Cleveland allowed the Wilson 
tariff to become law without his signature* 
To meet the loss on the customs an income 
tax was imposed ; but though it had been 
in operation during the Civil War it was now 
declared unconstitutional by the Supreme 
Court. The financial position was thus pre- 
carious, and Cleveland desired to stop the 
endless demand for gold by ceasing to reissue 
notes when redeemed. Though both Houses 
were Democratic for the first time since the war,, 
they were filled with silver men who blocked 
the proposal. It was a time of depression 
and unrest, and men sought anxiously for 
remedies. Armies of unemployed marched 
through the country, and strikes broke out. 
The workers of the Pullman Company at 
Chicago tried to prevent the use of the 
cars. When traffic was interrupted Cleve- 
land intervened on the ground that the 
mails were being hindered and interstate 
commerce blocked. Federal troops were sent 
and order was quickly restored. 



212 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

In foreign affairs Cleveland's second 
Presidency was eventful. Hawaii, which 
possessed growing commercial and strategic 
importance, was ruled by a native Queen 
whose authority had gradually been reduced 
to a shadow by American settlers. In 1876 
a reciprocity treaty bound the islands to 
America by close economic ties. In 1884 the 
States leased a naval station. In 1887 the 
suffrage was granted to the white settlers. 
In 1893 the Queen suddenly abolished the 
Constitution and restored the control of the 
Crown. A revolution broke out, forces were 
landed from an American warship in the 
harbour, and a Provisional Government was 
established. The American Minister pro- 
claimed a protectorate on his own initiative, 
and Harrison sent an annexation treaty to 
the Senate. A fortnight later Cleveland 
became President, withdrew the treaty, and 
repudiated the Minister. But as the Queen 
would not consent to an amnesty as a con- 
dition of her restoration, the Provisional 
Government remained in power, and the 
islands were annexed in 1898. 

If Cleveland had no desire to assume new 
responsibilities in the Pacific, he was fully 
prepared to defend the claims of the United 
States on the mainland. The boundary 
between British Guiana and Venezuela had 
never been fixed, and the discovery of gold in 



THE UNITED STATES 213 

the disputed territory rendered the settlement 
of the question urgent. When repeated dis- 
cussions led to no result, Cleveland offered 
the mediation of the United States in 1895, 
and Olney, his Secretary of State, demanded 
arbitration. Asserting that the United 
States were " paramount on the American 
Continent," he declared that the Monroe 
Doctrine " entitled and required " inter- 
vention. Salisbury refused unrestricted 
arbitration, adding that the Doctrine was in- 
applicable to the controversy and was in any 
case no part of International Law. Cleve- 
land replied by a peremptory Message, 
announcing that he would appoint a Com- 
mission of Inquiry and enforce its decisions, 
whatever they might be. The response to 
this uncompromising assertion of American 
claims was instantaneous, and a wave of 
warlike enthusiasm swept over the States. 
The British Government, amazed at the 
Message, consented to an arbitration which 
resulted in establishing the essentials of the 
British claim. 

The world did not awake to the full 
significance of the Monroe Doctrine till it 
suddenly discovered that the United States 
were ready to go to war about the boundary 
of Venezuela. When the danger arose in 
1823 of the Holy Alliance assisting Spain to 
recover her colonies in the New World, 



214 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

President Monroe, with Canning behind him, 
declared that America was " henceforth not 
to be considered as subject to colonisation 
by any European Power." The declaration 
rested on the idea of a natural separation 
between the Old and the New World which 
had inspired the warning against alliances in 
Washington's farewell address. It asserted 
the right of free peoples to determine their 
own destinies, and proclaimed the principle 
of " America for the Americans." What 
Bismarck described as an international im- 
pertinence has been the corner-stone of the 
foreign policy of the United States. The 
Mexican Empire of Louis Napoleon was only 
rendered possible by the Civil War, and when 
the conflict was over it received notice to 
quit. As the United States increased in 
strength the scope of the declaration was 
widened. While Monroe had declared that 
there would be no interference with existing 
colonies. Grant spoke as if their connection 
with Europe should cease. The Olney 
dispatch carried the doctrine a stage forward. 
After being brought within sight of war the 
relations of the United States and Great 
Britain became more friendly. Before his 
famous Message Cleveland had suggested a 
general treaty of arbitration, and the Vene- 
zuela quarrel increased his desire for it. In 
1897 the two Governments signed a treaty ; 



THE UNITED STATES 215 

but the two-thirds majority in the Senate was 
not forthcoming, partly owing to its tradi- 
tional disinclination to surrender any fraction 
of its power, partly from fear of the Irish 
vote. Mr. Chamberlain's ill-judged proposal 
of an alliance met with an even less friendly 
welcome. 

With the end of Cleveland's second term 
American politics entered on a new phase. 
His party had broken away from him, and 
the Presidential election of 1896 revealed 
the strength of the new forces. The agri- 
cultural States of the south and west were 
still suffering severely, and clamoured for free 
silver. Business was scarcely less depressed. 
Money was scarce, it was said, because the 
Government insisted on the gold standard, 
though gold was too scarce to be the sole 
medium of exchange. The conviction be- 
came general that the stagnation could be 
relieved by the free coinage of gold and 
silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. Many Re- 
publicans were converted, but the party as a 
whole resisted the infection. The Democratic 
Convention, on the other hand, nominated 
Bryan, a young lawyer from Nebraska, on the 
strength of a brilliant speech voicing the 
spirit of passionate revolt by which the 
assembly was moved. His phrase " We will 
not be crucified on a cross of gold" became 
the watchword of the campaign. While the 



216 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

Populists and the Free Silver Republicans 
supported Bryan, the Conservative Democrats 
threw off their allegiance. Though he 
preached his gospel with extraordinary 
eloquence, and multitudes saw in him a new 
Messiah, the conservative forces in the country 
won. McKinley was elected by a majority 
of half a million on a poll of 14 millions, and 
a Republican majority was returned in both 
Houses. The enormous output of gold in 
South Africa banished the fear of a deficiency 
in the circulating medium, and a series of 
good years restored prosperity to agriculture. 
An Act was passed for the preservation of the 
gold standard, and a large gold reserve was 
established. To meet the need of revenue the 
Dingley tariff was hurried through Congress 
in 1897. 

The new President was to be confronted 
with problems which had played no part 
in the electoral campaign. The renewal of 
the insurrection in Cuba in 1895 and its 
savage repression by Weyler had deeply 
stirred opinion, and in his annual Message 
in 1896 Cleveland threatened intervention. 
American interests had become very large, 
and the island was being steadily ruined. 
In 1897 McKinley formally requested Spain 
to restore order. When the Maine was 
blown up the country clamoured for war. 
Though McKinley had no desire for a con- 



THE UNITED STATES 217 

fiict, he made no attempt to stem the rising 
excitement. Congress declared the Cubans 
free and independent, authorising the 
President to terminate Spanish Government 
in the island, and recording their resolution 
not to annex it. The country was totally 
unprepared for the struggle. The army was 
only 27,000 strong, and the chief burden fell 
on volunteers. The navy, on the other 
hand, though small, was horoughly efficient 
One Spanish fleet was destroyed in Manila 
Bay without the loss of a single American 
life, and another in a dash from Santiago, 
in which only one American was killed. At 
the end of July, Spain sued for peace. Only 
one battle had been fought on land. 

At this moment Dewey was proposing to 
attack Manila, and had arranged with 
Aguinaldo, who had recently led the 
Filipinos in revolt, to co-operate from the 
land side. The day after the armistice was 
signed at Washington, Manila was captured. 
Spain vigorously resisted the cession of the 
Philippines, which had not been conquered ; 
but the blow was softened by the payment 
of 4 millions. The Commissioners of the 
Powers met at Paris in October. The treaty 
of peace gave Cuba to the Cubans, and Porto 
Rico and the Philippines to the victors. 
The revelation of Spanish weakness had 
turned a war of deliverance into a war of 



218 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 



aggrandisement. The territory of the United 
States was filling up. New markets were 
needed. The Philippines offered a foothold 
in the East, to which the Powers were 
turning their eyes. It seemed as if the 
opportunity for a larger life came with the 
need, and the Republic reached out its hand 
and seized it. 

The enthusiasm of empire disappeared 
almost as rapidly as it had arisen. Aguinaldo 
had been brought from Hong-Kong in an 
American vessel and treated as an ally, and 
he had believed that the Americans were 
helping his fellow-countrymen to gain their 
freedom. When they learned that they had 
only changed their masters they set up a 
republic. A revolt broke out in 1899, which 
required several campaigns and an army of 
70,000 men to suppress. The ravages of 
disease, the barbarity with which the 
Filipinos fought, and the cruelties with which 
the troops retaliated sickened America of 
the struggle. The Democrats declared that 
a breach of faith had been committed ; but 
no one desired to see the islands occupied 
by Germany or Japan. Heroic efforts were 
made to educate the Filipinos and prepare 
them for ultimate self-government ; but 
they felt no gratitude, and clamoured for 
independence. The expense of the occupa- 
tion was enormous. A year or two after the 



il 



THE UNITED STATES 219 

war, in the words of Mr. Bryce, " the one 
party no longer claimed any credit for the 
conquest, and the other could not suggest 
how to get rid of it." In regard to Cuba, 
the States have loyally observed their pledges. 
A Cuban Republic was established, and the 
relations of the two countries were settled 
by treaty in 1903. Cuba undertook not to 
admit the interference of any foreign Power, 
while the United States reserved the right 
to intervene for the preservation of inde- 
pendence and the maintenance of order. 
Intervention became necessary under the 
latter head in 1906, and the island was ruled 
by an American Governor till 1909. The 
experience of the Philippines is the best 
guarantee of the independence of Cuba. 

The Presidential election of 1900 found 
the Republicans stronger than in 1896. As 
business improved the silver cry lost its 
potency. Bryan stood on the same plat- 
form as before, but there was far less excite- 
ment, and McKinley won by a larger majority. 
A year later he was assassinated, and the Vice- 
President was called to the helm. McKinley 
lacked force and originality, and conceived it to 
be his duty to follow public opinion. Roose- 
velt, a born leader of men, regarded the 
Presidency as a position inviting the exercise 
of a vigorous initiative. He was aided by 
his prestige. After an apprenticeship in 



220 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

the New York legislature he had learned 
know the Middle West as a rancher, and ha( 
displayed capacity as the head of the New 
York police. He had raised a regiment of 
rough-riders during the campaign in Cuba, I 
and shared with the admirals the honours? 
of the conflict. On his return he had become! 
Governor of New York. Called unex- 
pectedly to the White House in 1901 at the 
age of 42, Roosevelt entered on seven years 
of almost personal rule. In 1902 he began? 
in insist on the necessity of legislation to! 
control the trusts, and his mediation in a I 
great strike of coal-miners in Pennsylvania | 
increased his popularity. Though the Re-j 
publican bosses were indignant at his attacks 
on wealthy interests which supported the party, 
his bold attitude was generally welcomed. 
His marked attentions to Booker Washington 
gave satisfaction to the best elements in the 
country at a time when race riots were dis- 
gracing the central as well as the southern 
States. 

The acquisition of a colonial empire in the 
Atlantic and Pacific rendered the rapid con- 
centration of the fleet essential. The Clayton- 
Bulwer treaty of 1850 provided that if a 
canal were made it should not be under the 
exclusive control of any Power. In 1881 
Secretary Blaine had in vain suggested to 
the British Government that the treaty 



THE UNITED STATES 221 

should be modified ; but after the settle- 
ment of the Venezuelan controversy the 
relations of the two countries improved. 
Great Britain openly sympathised with the 
States in the Spanish war, and it was widely 
believed that she had nipped in the bud a 
project for joint European intervention. The 
seal was set on their reconciliation in 1901 
when she recognised the right of the United 
States to construct and fortify a canal under 
its own exclusive jurisdiction. The Hay- 
Pauncefote Treaty was followed by the pur- 
chase of all rights and concessions from the 
French Panama Company. Negotiations with 
Columbia as to the status of the canal proving 
fruitless, Panama declared its independence in 
1903, and was immediately recognised by the 
United States. A strip of land across the 
peninsula ten miles wide was granted, in 
return for a payment of two millions and an 
annual subsidy. Construction began at once, 
and the canal will be open in 1914. 

The election of 1904 confirmed the 
President in his position. The most striking 
achievement of his second term was his media- 
tion between Russia and Japan in 1905 ; but 
the rapid influx of Japanese into the Pacific 
States after the war led to ugly manifesta- 
tions of feeling and to the exclusion of Japan- 
ese children from the schools of California. 
State and federal interests were in direct con- 



222 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

flict. The despatch of the fleet to the Pacific 
appeared to indicate tension ; but the Govern- 
ments remained cool, and Japan undertook 
to restrict settlement in America, despite her 
treaty rights. At the same time a stricter 
attitude was adopted towards white immi- 
grants. The influx of English and Irish, 
Germans and Scandinavians had rapidly 
declined, while enormous numbers from the 
south and east of Europe now crossed the 
Atlantic every year. The apprehensions 
aroused by the arrival of a lower type of 
civilisation led Congress in 1906 to make a 
knowledge of English necessary for naturalis- 
ation, and in 1907 to increase the restrictions 
imposed on the invading army at Ellis Island. 
The end of Roosevelt's term was darkened 
by widespread distress. The earthquake 
which destroyed San Francisco in 1906 was 
followed by the Stock Exchange crisis of 
1907, in which most of the banks suspended 
cash payments for many weeks. The Presi- 
dent's feud with the trusts and the bosses 
increased in bitterness, and Wall Street lost no 
opportunity of expressing its dislike of his 
policy. Of a less controversial character were 
his efforts to check the wholesale destruction 
of the natural resources of the country. 

On his election in 1904 Roosevelt had 
declared that he would not stand again ; 
and in 1908 his friend and colleague Taft 



i 



THE UNITED STATES 223 

was elected without difficulty, Bryan being 
defeated for the third time. The new Presi- 
dent was expected to continue the policy 
of his predecessor ; but he differed in temper 
and method, if not in ideas. The business 
world rejoiced in the prospect of less inter- 
ference ; but the progressive elements in the 
Republican party became restive. The In- 
surgents were determined to break the power 
of the bosses, and in 1909 Speaker Cannon 
was overthrown. The President attempted 
to prevent a final split between the two 
sections of his party ; but his efforts met 
with very partial success. The Payne-Aldrich 
tariff brought no real reduction, and was 
vigorously attacked by the Insurgents. The 
confusion in the Republican ranks was intensi- 
fied when Roosevelt returned from a trium- 
phant tour in Europe in the summer of 1910. 
At the Congressional elections in the autumn 
the Democrats secured a sweeping majority, 
carrying States which had never voted Demo- 
crat before. The main cause of the Republi- 
can rout was the failure to reduce the tariff, 
which had raised the cost of living and 
fostered monopolies and political corruption. 
That the lesson was not lost on the President 
was shown in 1911 by the conclusion of a 
far-reaching measure of reciprocity with 
Canada, and the summoning of a special 
session of Congress for its ratification. 



224 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

II 

When the Canadian colonies were federated 
in 1867 the scattered settlements beyond the 
Rocky Mountains were isolated from the 
east and even from Manitoba. To make a 
nation was the task of Sir John Macdonald 
and the Conservative party which came into 
power in the year of federation, and, with a 
short interval, retained office till 1896. Its 
policy was the fostering of industries by Pro- 
tection, the development of communications, 
and the strengthening of the imperial con- 
nection. The Canadian Pacific Railway 
reached its goal in 1886, and the settlement 
of the west began. A revolt of half-castes 
in the north-west, led by Louis Riel, was 
suppressed in 1885 by the Canadian Militia. 
But prosperity and population increased 
slowly, and thousands of Canadians settled 
in the United States every year. The Liberal 
party advocated a lower tariff and closer 
commercial relations with the United States, 
and for a time a few voices supported the 
demand of Gold win Smith for union. Mac- 
donald died in 1891, his party was weakened 
by financial scandals, and in 1896 the Liberals, 
led by Laurier, entered on an uninterrupted 
term of office. They continued the system 
of Protection and bounties, but in 1897 a 
step towards free trade was taken by the 



CANADA 225 

grant of a preference of 12 J per cent., subse- 
quently increased to 33 J per cent., to British 
goods. This differentiation led to Germany 
excepting Canada from the most favoured 
nation treatment accorded by her to the 
British Empire. Canada retaliated in 1903 
by a sur-tax on German goods, and the tarifi' 
war continued till 1910. 

With the opening of the present century 
her fortunes rapidly improved. The dis- 
covery of gold at Klondyke in 1899 caused a 
rush to the west. As the development of 
the Pacific slope proceeded, Chinese and 
Japanese coolies flocked in, and the Federal 
Government was compelled to check them, — 
the former by drastic legislation, the latter 
by treaty. Western Canada attracted an 
ever-increasing army of American settlers. 
It was discovered that wheat would grow 
farther north than had been supposed ; and 
Canada began to take her place among the 
granaries of the world. The vast space 
between Manitoba and British Columbia was 
filled in 1905 by the creation of the new 
Drovinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. So 
Treat was the influx that the Governm^ent 
'elt strong enough to raise its standard for 
European immigrants. Amid this whirl of 
ihange the province of Quebec continues its 
)lacid life, and its loyalty is expressed in the 
veil-known saying that the last shot in 

H 



226 HISTORY OF OUR TIMI 

defence of British sovereignty on the American 
continent will be fired by a Frenchman. The 
only grievance of the French Canadian has 
arisen in the schools. When Manitoba was 
made a province in 1870 it retained denomina- 
tionalism, but substituted an unsectarian 
system in 1890. French Catholics appealed 
to the Privy Council, which declared that 
the Federal Government could intervene. 
In 1895 an attempt to override the province 
failed, and it was left to the Liberals to 
remove the grievance by protecting religious 
teaching in the Catholic schools. 

The relations of Canada with her great 
neighbour have been smoothed by the suc- 
cessive removal of differences. In 1886 a 
dispute arose in regard to seal fishing in the 
Behring Sea, which after long negotiations 
was submitted to arbitration in 1892. The 
Tribunal reported in 1893 in favour of the 
British contention that it was an open sea, 
and drew up a scheme of joint regulations, 
A second controversy related to the boundarj 
of Alaska, the huge Arctic province sold bj 
Russia to the United States in 1867. Th( 
matter was rendered important by the dis 
covery of gold at Klondyke, and in 1903 th 
arbitrators decided broadly in favour of th< 
American claim. A third and even mor( 
important dispute, relating to Americai 
fishing rights off Newfoundland and No 



LATIN AMERICA 227 

Scotia, was referred to the Hague Tribunal 
in 1910, and settled in the main in accordance 
with British claims. The Waterways Treaty 
of 1910 established a permanent Court of 
Conciliation for differences arising in boundary 
waters. Finally, in 1911 a far-reaching 
measure of reciprocity was framed by the 
two Governments, the United States needing 
a new supply of food and raw materials and 
the Canadian West demanding cheaper 
manufactured articles. 



Ill 

The last generation has witnessed the 
rapid development of large portions of Latin 
America. The gigantic federal State of 
Mexico, in which the native Indian is much 
more numerous than the white man, was 
guided since 1877 by Porfirio Diaz, under 
whose rule British and American capital 
flowed in and peace was maintained. But 
his long reign was frankly despotic, and the 
country was developed by a hideous system 
of virtual slave labour. His overthrow and 
flight in 1911 have brought new men to the 
front, and the future of Mexico is beyond 
calculation. The five small Central American 
Republics of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicar- 
agua, San Salvador, and Costa Rica have 
made but little progress. Federation, though 
h2 



228 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

often discussed, is still far off, and war and 
insurrections have frightened foreign capital. 
The opening of the canal may lead the United 
States to insist on a minimum standard of 
tranquillity. The first step has been taken 
by the institution of a permanent Court of 
Justice in 1908, under the auspices of the 
United States and Mexico, for the settlement 
of all disputes between the Central American 
Republics. The little State of Panama is 
already, for practical purposes, an American 
Protectorate. 

The tropical States of South America — 
Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru — have 
made scarcely more progress. Their history 
oscillates between dictatorship and revolu- 
tion, and their population consists almost 
wholly of natives, negroes, and mestizos, 
European settlers and European capital alike 
avoid these Republics, with their enervating 
climate and their feverish political life. 
Bolivia and Paraguay are almost wholly 
inhabited by native Indians. The Eastern 
and Western States, on the other hand, have 
made considerable and in some cases rapid 
advance. During the long reign of Pedro II 
many reforms were introduced in Brazil, and 
slavery was abolished in 1888. But an 
empire in a continent of republics appeared 
an anomaly, and in 1889 the Emperor, who 
had no son, was deposed by a bloodless 



LATIN AMERICA 229 

military revolution and shipped off to Lisbon. 
Unwise finance has led to a series of crises ; 
but Rio has become a great city, and the 
resources of the vast country are only begin- 
ning to be tapped. Far more striking has 
been the career of Argentina, the second in 
size and the first in importance of South 
American States. Since her bankruptcy in 
1889, which provoked the Baring crisis, she 
has attracted a large European population, 
chiefly Italian, and an enormous volume of 
British capital. She will soon be the 
greatest corn and meat exporting country in 
the world. Her comparatively temperate 
climate, rich plains, and easy water com- 
munications promise a future of almost 
boundless prosperity, and Buenos Ayres, 
with a population of a million and a quarter, 
is already by far the largest city in South 
America. Her western neighbour, Chile, a 
mere strip of the Pacific coast two thousand 
miles long, has proved her enterprise, despite 
grave internal troubles. The Presidency of 
Balmaceda, which began in 1886, witnessed 
a sincere attempt towards reform ; but Con- 
gress, which was less democratic, thwarted 
his efforts, and in 1891 civil war broke out. 
The President was defeated and committed 
suicide. War with Argentina on boundary 
questions was avoided by submitting the 
dispute to King Edward VII for arbitration. 



1 



230 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 



The settlement of the gravest frontier 
disputes, the growing preference for arbitra- 
tion, and the increase of European settlers 
and capital suggest a future of peaceful 
development for the largest part of the 
southern continent. Though the human 
material is not of the best, the habits of 
civilised States are gradually being acquired. 
Federation is out of the question ; but 
combinations of some of the smaller re- 
publics are not impossible. While saved from 
the fate of Africa by the Monroe Doctrine, 
Latin America is at the mercy of her pro- 
tector. The joint demonstration of Great 
Britain, Germany, and Italy against Presi- 
dent Castro in 1903 was watched with intense 
suspicion by the United States, which pro- 
claimed that even temporary occupation of 
territory could not be permitted. The 
attack on Venezuela prompted the Foreign 
Minister of Argentina to demand the pro- 
hibition of armed intervention for the col- 
lection of debts. The Drago Doctrine was 
widely discussed, and at the second Hague 
Conference it was agreed that force should 
not be employed till the claims had been 
approved by arbitration and payment refused 
by the debtor State. > 

The Pan-American Congresses at Washing- i 
ton (1889), Mexico City (1901), and Rio ' 
(1906), and the establishment of the Bureau 



LATIN AMERICA 231 

of American Republics at Washington, point 
to still closer relations between North and 
South. But though Latin America is 
grateful to her mighty neighbour for pro- 
tection in time of need, she trembles lest 
that power should be abused. The high- 
handed treatment of Colombia sent a dis- 
agreeable thrill through the southern hemi- 
sphere. The Monroe Doctrine is the most 
elastic as well as the most audacious of 
political principles, and he would be a bold 
man who dared to assert that its develop- 
ment is at an end. 



CHAPTER X 

WORLD PROBLEMS 

The most striking outward feature of the 
history of the last generation is the shrink- 
age of the world. No country, no continent 
any longer lives an independent life. The 
expansion of the dominant races has led to 
a fuller occupation of the surface of the 
earth. The curtains which hide its secrets 
are being raised one by one. Lhassa was 
invaded in 1904, the North Pole was reached 
by Peary in 1909, the capitulation of the 
South Pole is within sight. Man at last 
knows his home. As the world contracts 
the human race grows more conscious of 
its unity. Ideas, ideals, and experiments 
make the tour of the globe. Civilisation 
has become international. 

Of the world-movements of the last genera- 
tion the advance of democracy, in its dual 
aspect of liberty and equality, is by far 
the most important. The Parliaments of 

Japan, Persia, and Turkey, the demand 
232 



WORLD PROBLEMS 233 

for self-government in China, India, Egypt, 
and the PhiHppines, reveal the attrac- 
tion of democratic ideas. The transfer of 
power from the few to the many has gone 
steadily forward. The aggregation of great 
masses in cities has weakened feudal and 
conservative influences and enabled the 
fourth estate to organise its forces. The 
right of the majority to give effect to its 
settled wishes is now recognised, at least 
in theory, in most civilised States, and 
machinery is invented to discover what the 
will of the people really is. The Referendum, 
which has long worked to the general satis- 
faction in Switzerland, has been adopted 
in Australia and in some of the American 
States ; while in the form of Local Option 
it has spread throughout the English-speaking 
world. Proportional representation is at 
work in Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Fin- 
land, Wiirttemberg, some of the Swiss 
cantons. South Africa, and Japan, and is 
steadily gaining ground. In Belgium and 
parts of Switzerland the citizen is fined if 
he does not go to the poll, and a similar 
provision has been proposed in Italy and 
Argentina. 

More important than these mechanical 
expedients for arriving at the will of the 
people has been the concession of the fran- 
chise to women in Australia and New Zealand, 



234 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

Norway and Finland, the Isle of Man, and five 
of the United States (Wyoming, Colorado, 
Idaho, Utah, and Washington). Nineteen 
women entered the Finnish Diet on the grant 
of universal suffrage, and one took her seat 
at Christiania in 1911. The demand for a 
vote as the symbol of citizenship reached 
a new stage in Great Britain in 1905, when 
the Women's Social and Political Union, 
founded by Mrs. Pankhurst in 1903, adopted 
militant methods ; but the organised attack 
on the sex barrier provoked an organised 
defence, while the great mass of women 
remain indifferent spectators of the con- 
flict which is waged in their name. Several 
Bills have received a second reading in the 
House of Commons, but the historic parties 
are too deeply divided in opinion to take 
up the question officially. On the other 
hand, women have voted in County Council 
elections from the start, and in 1907 became 
eligible for membership. The movement 
towards sex equality makes rapid strides. 
Women doctors are found everywhere, women 
la^vyers practise at the French Bar, women 
ministers of religion are common in the 
United States and not unknown in England. 
Nearly every University has opened its 
doors to female students, though Oxford 
and Cambridge still refuse them the degrees 
to which they are entitled. An International 



WORLD PROBLEMS 235 

Council of Women was formed in 1888 under 
the presidency of Lady Aberdeen, and the 
first Congress met in London in 1889. In 
every department of Hfe and work women 
play a part of increasing importance. No 
voice so powerful as that of Mill is raised 
on their behalf ; but their ideals have been 
forcibly expressed by such writers as Ellen 
Key, Charlotte Gilman, and Olive Schreiner, 
while the demand for legal equality has been 
set forth in Lady Maclaren's Woman'' s Charter. 
The concession of equal civil and political 
rights is consistently supported by the Labour 
parties of every country. 

The most decisive sign of the advance of 
democracy is the rise of organised Labour 
parties. The attainment of a democratic 
franchise has naturally been followed by a 
demand for greater equality in the economic 
sphere. In no great country has Socialism 
played such a conspicuous part as in Germany, 
where it has won the allegiance of the vast 
majority of manual workers in the towns. In 
Prussia it has at last forced its way into the 
Landtag. In Saxony its power became so 
great that the menaced interests combined 
to withdraw universal suffrage in 1897. In 
the more liberal South German States the 
Socialists co-operate with the advanced 
sections of the bourgeoisie. In Great Britain 
a Labour party, largely though not wholly 



236 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

socialist, emerged from the election of 1906. 
In France and Italy parliamentary Socialism 
became a force in the nineties. In Austria it 
arrived with universal suffrage in 1907. Its 
strength in the first and second Dumas was one 
of the excuses for narrowing the franchise of 
the third. In 1885 a Labour party was 
formed in Belgium, where the Walloon 
miners and factory-workers of the South 
confront the Catholic Flemings of the North, 
and where it is most closely associated with 
the Co-operative movement. In Holland and 
the Scandinavian States it has won a firm 
hold in the Chambers, and in the Finnish Diet 
elected in 1911 nearly half the members were 
Socialists. In Spain it is increasing its hold 
in the seaboard towns. Its leading person- 
alities, Rebel and Bernstein in Germany, 
Adler in Austria, Turati and Ferri in Italy, 
Iglesias in Spain, Jaur^s in France, Vander- 
velde in Belgium, Troelstra in Holland, Keir 
Hardie, Ramsay Macdonald, and Philip 
Snowden in England, are men of high char- 
acter and unquestionable ability, influ- 
ential in their respective Parliaments and 
speaking for a great volume of working-class 
opinion at the International Socialist Con- 
gresses held at intervals since 1889. 

The once imposing Marxian structure, mean- 
while, is falling into ruins, and among its 
critics are many Socialists. Its theory of 



WORLD PROBLEMS 237 

value is untenable, its economic forecast has 
been falsified, its distrust of legislation as a 
means of social betterment is out of date. 
Younger men are turning to the " Revision- 
ism " expounded in the writings of Bern- 
stein, while the assumption of ministerial 
office by French Socialists marks a further 
breach with the exclusive traditions of the 
past. In Great Britain Marxism has declined 
in influence since the death of William Morris, 
and the empirical collectivism of the Fabian 
Society has made steady progress in the fields 
both of theory and practice. The only 
exception to the movement towards evolu- 
tionary doctrine and parliamentary action is 
to be found in Syndicalism, which has won a 
large body of support in France and Italy 
since Sorel published his work. The Socialist 
Future of Syndicates, in 1897. The Syndicalist 
works through federated trade unions instead 
of through political representation. Unions, 
he declares, must be purely fighting organisa- 
tions, their chief weapon the strike, their 
object the forcible transformation of society. 
While Marx taught that the capitalist 
movement tended automatically to its 
own destruction, Sorel and his followers 
affirm that the change can only be accom- 
plished by a determined effort of the pro- 
letariat. 

Travelling beyond the boundaries of Europe, 



238 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

Socialism is found to a less extent in the United 
States, where private initiative is more highly 
prized than in any other part of the world, 
and where no Socialist entered Congress till 
1911. In 1901 a Socialist party was organised 
in Japan, where the evils of the competitive 
system are growing with the development 
of industry. In New Zealand a period of 
advanced legislation, equally acceptable to 
the Socialist and the Radical, was inaugurated 
by Seddon. But it is in Australia that the 
Labour party has gained its greatest political 
successes. In 1904 a Labour Ministry held 
office for a few months without an independent 
majority ; but in 1910 the Commonwealth 
elections gave it a substantial majority in 
both Houses and enabled the Fisher Ministry 
to levy a progressive land tax on undeveloped 
estates. 

In addition to the efforts of the manual 
workers to improve their conditions of life 
by industrial association, co-operative dis- 
tribution, and political action, the members 
of other classes have busied themselves 
increasingly with the social problem. 
Legislation aiming at a minimum standard 
of education, health, and leisure is gradually 
filling the statute-books of civilised countries, 
and laggards are brought into line by the 
international meetings and agreements which 
began with the Berlin Labour Conference of 



WORLD PROBLEMS 23a 

1890. Social experiments are copied as 
rapidly as scientific inventions. The Ghent 
system of insurance against unemployment, 
inaugurated in 1901, has spread over Central 
and Northern Europe. The Wages Boards set 
up in Victoria in 1896 have been adopted by 
the mother country. Germany has led the 
way with labour exchanges, labour colonies, 
provision against sickness and accident, old 
age and invalidity. Great Britain is about to 
embark on a pioneer scheme of State-aided 
insurance against unemployment. Charles 
Booth and Seebohm Rowntree have described 
the life and labour of the people, and the 
numberless University Settlements, springing 
from the seed sown by Arnold Toynbee, 
testify to a more generous recognition of 
social responsibility. 

In an age of science and democracy the 
power of tradition is everywhere weakening. 
The significant endeavour of Modernism to 
restate the Catholic position has aroused 
world-wide sympathy and interest ; but Pius 
X, departing from the cautious tolerance 
of his predecessor, has offered it uncom- 
promising opposition. Loisy and Tyrrell 
felt the heavy hand of the Pope, and even 
Fogazzaro, the last representative of the 
liberal Catholicism of Rosmini, was frowned on 
by the Vatican. The Syllabus " Lamentabili " 
and the Encyclical " Pascendi " have slain 



240 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

Modernism as a school of Catholic thought. 
The watchword of Pius X is concentration. 
He prefers an obedient flock to a larger number 
of nominal adherents. Thus he imposes on 
teachers an oath against Modernism, denounces 
the Reformation in the Borromeo Encyclical, 
and penalises mixed marriages by the Ne 
temere decree. The attempts of Catholics to 
prove the compatibility of their faith with 
democratic principles has been rebuked. The 
promising Sillonist movement of Marc 
Sangnier has been suppressed in France, and 
the excommunication of Romolo Murri has 
destroyed Christian Democracy in Italy. Yet 
this rigid conservatism attracts the type of 
mind which yearns for authority, and there 
has been a steady flow of converts from the 
Protestant Churches and from the ranks of 
disillusioned sceptics. While the older 
Churches have lost much of their ground, the 
tendency of recent thought is rather con- 
structive than destructive. The teachings of 
Mrs. Eddy have spread rapidly throughout 
the United States and found a fainter welcome 
in the Old World. The emphasis laid by 
Christian Science on the power of the will 
reappears in the newer psychology of James 
and Bergson. Philosophy has passed out of 
her positivist mood, and Science has grown 
more willing to accept idealist interpretations 
of the universe. 



WORLD PROBLEMS 241 

Though the theological temperature is 
falling, the tge-long conflict between Christian 
and Jew has been renewed with increased 
bitterness. But the Anti-Semitism of the 
last two decades of the nineteenth century 
was rather the offspring of economic than 
of racial or religious causes. The crusade 
began in Prussia in 1878 with the denuncia- 
tions of Stocker, a Court chaplain, who 
traced the growing materialism of German 
society to Jewish financiers and journalists. 
He was vigorously supported by the historian 
Treitschke, and despite the opposition of 
Mommsen, Virchow, and other leaders of 
thought, the virus spread over Germany. 
When dismissed by William II he appeared 
in the Reichstag as the leader of a party of 
Anti-Semites. By this time Austria had 
outstripped her ally. The party of Christian 
Socialism, supported by the Catholic clergy, 
obtained the enthusiastic support of the 
small traders of the towns, while its leader, 
Lueger, the burgomaster of Vienna, held the 
capital in the hollow of his hand till his 
death in 1910. In France the poisoned pen 
of Drumont prepared the way for the out- 
burst of Anti-Semitism to which Dreyfus 
owed his sufferings. But it was in Eastern 
Europe, the abode of two-thirds of the ten 
million Jews scattered over the world, that 
the storm raged most fiercely. In Russia 



242 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

violent mob attacks began in 1881 and were 
renewed in 1891. A decade later a third 
cycle of persecution opened with the hideous 
massacre at Kishineff, the capital of Bess- 
arabia. Scarcely less terrible have been the 
sufferings of Jews in Roumania. Among the 
conditions on which the new State was 
recognised in 1878 was the removal of religious 
disabilities ; but the Government made no 
attempt to fulfil its pledges. Restrictions were 
multiplied to such an extent that life became 
almost intolerable. A great exodus began 
in 1900. Many fled to America, and in 1902 
Secretary Hay invited the signatories of the 
Treaty of Berlin to common action. As 
Great Britain alone responded, collective 
pressure was impossible, and the only result 
of the American protest was that the 
Roumanian Government prohibited emigra- 
tion. 

The answer to Anti-Semitism was Zionism. 
In 1896 Herzl, a Vienna journalist, outlined 
a plan of an autonomous republic under the 
Sultan. The scheme was warmly embraced 
by Max Nordau, Zangwill, and other influential 
leaders, and the first Zionist Congress was 
held at Basel in 1897 ; but the difficulties of 
the project soon became apparent. Abdul 
Hamid was sympathetic, but failed to make 
a satisfactory ofler. Russia was hostile and 
Germany unfriendly. The prosperous Jews 



WORLD PROBLEMS 243 

of Western Europe had no wish to exchange 
the comforts of civilisation for the barren 
soil of Palestine. Despite these discourage- 
ments Zionists refused to abandon hope, and 
an offer by the British Government of an 
alternative refuge in East Africa in 1903 was 
refused after heated discussions. But the 
death of Herzl in 1904 dealt a mortal blow 
at the movement, and the recent project of 
a settlement in Mesopotamia has attracted 
little enthusiasm. 

The filling up of the world has brought 
the white and the coloured races once more 
into close contact. Though slavery and 
the slave-trade had been abolished by 
civilised States before the scramble for 
Africa began in 1884, old evils have re- 
appeared under new names. Since the 
effective exploitation of tropical and sub- 
tropical territories is beyond the capacity 
of white men, indentured labour has been 
invented, and the " White Man's Burden " 
is too often the dark man's doom. The 
murders and mutilations of the Congo Free 
State, the holocausts of Angola servicaes, 
the cruelties of the Chartered Company in 
Matabeleland and of Dr. Peters in German 
East Africa, the wholesale destruction of 
human life on the hemp plantations of 
Yucatan, the massacre of Blagovestchenk, 
the march of the European armies to Pekin, 



244 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

are part of the price that humanity has had| 
to pay for the new ImperiaHsm. Of another 
character are the indignities long inflicted on 
educated Indians in the Transvaal under 
Dutch and British rule, the perpetuation of a 
colour bar in the new constitution of South 
Africa, and the undiminished insolence of the 
American towards the negro. 

Yet some progress in the solution of the 
greatest and most difficult of world problems 
has been made. The sense of responsibility 
is growing. Such bodies as the African 
Society, founded in memory of Mary 
Kingsley, and the South African Native 
Races Committee reveal a new and sym- 
pathetic attitude towards native ques- 
tions. The noble work of missionaries 
is bearing fruit. The British Anti-Slavery 
and Aborigines Protection Society continues 
its beneficent activity. Thanks to the 
crusade of the saintly Lavigerie and the 
Brussels Conference of 1890 to which it led, 
the African slave-trade is more closely 
watched, and the sale of black ivory is being 
gradually limited. Steps are being taken to 
save natives from the ravages of alcohol. 
An International Conference met at Shanghai 
in 1909 to concert measures against the use 
of opium. No one now doubts that not 
only the yellow but the brown and the 
black races are capable of progress. While 



WORLD PROBLEMS 245 

Hayti and Liberia show how httle advance 
they can make without help, Jamaica, 
Basutoland, and the Malay States reveal a 
marked capacity for development under 
sympathetic guidance. The American negro 
learns at Tuskegee to become a useful member 
of a civilised State, and Booker Washington 
and Professor Dubois are among the intellec- 
tual assets of their country. Pure blooded 
m^embers of the dark races, such as Rizal, 
the Filipino scholar, novelist, and patriot, 
and Tengo Jebavu, the South African 
journalist, show the possibilities of advance. 
The desire to preserve racial purity is 
common to the higher nations. Yet the 
wisdom of friendly co-operation between 
the higher and the lower races becomes 
ever more apparent. If the white man 
boasts of his superior intelligence, the 
coloured man possesses a scarcely less for- 
midable instrument in his overwhelming 
numbers. 

Though the civilised world has become 
increasingly conscious of its unity, vast 
armaments are still regarded as the only 
guarantee of national security. The acquisi- 
tion of oversea dominions has tempted the 
Powers to supplement their rivalry on land 
by rivalry at sea. The number of men under 
arms in Europe has risen to 5 millions, while 
the war budget exceeds 300 millions. Japan 



246 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

and the United States have joined in the race, 
and the South American RepubHcs have 
squandered millions on battleships of the 
largest size. Schemes for a reduction of 
armaments flitted through the restless brain 
of Louis Napoleon, and occupied the attention 
of Salisbury and other statesmen. As debt 
and taxation increased without any corre- 
sponding advance in relative strength, the cry 
for relief grew more insistent, and it was 
with a shock of joyful surprise that the world 
learned in 1898 that the most autocratic 
monarch in Europe had invited the Powers 
to discuss the feasibility of a halt. In im- 
pressive language the Rescript lamented the 
growing burden on the peoples and the diver- 
sion of national effort from productive pursuits. 
Cynics dismissed the proposal as an adroit 
move on the part of a State whose finances 
were in disorder ; but there is no reason to 
suspect the sincerity of the Tsar. When the 
delegates met at the Hague in 1899 it became 
clear that there was no chance of realising 
the purpose for which the Conference had 
met. The spokesman of Germany declared 
in emphatic words that his country found 
her armaments no crushing burden, and that 
she could entertain no proposal for their 
limitation. 

When the ideal was thus rudely shattered, the 
Conference fell back on arbitration. There had 



WORLD PROBLEMS 247 

been over one hundred arbitrations between 
States during the nineteenth century. The 
Alabama award did httle to assist the cause of 
arbitration, owing to the excessive damages 
that Great Britain was called on to pay. 
Twenty years later the Behring Sea dispute 
was settled by arbitrators, two nominated by 
Great Britain and the United States, and 
three by the rulers of countries not concerned 
in the dispute. Other differences have been 
terminated by an independent arbitrator. 
But it was obvious that a permanent Court 
would be found highly convenient, and it is 
the glory of the First Hague Conference, at 
the suggestion of Lord Pauncefote, to have 
created it. Of the controversies referred to 
the Hague Tribunal by far the most important 
related to the Newfoundland Fisheries. Still 
more recently, the questions involved in the 
escape and capture of Savarkar at Marseilles 
were referred to the Court, and settled in 
favour of the British claim. In addition to 
the growing willingness of States to refer 
their disputes to arbitration, the practice of 
concluding general treaties is becoming 
common. Many contracts have been signed 
during the last generation pledging the 
signatories to submit all questions except 
those touching vital interests or national 
honour. The next step, which was first 
taken by Chile and Argentina, was to under- 



248 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

take to refer all disputes without exception. 
The courageous proposal of President Taft 
in 1910 to conclude an unconditional treaty 
with " some Great Power " and the warm 
welcome extended to it by Sir Edward Grey 
in March 1911, bring within sight a new 
hope for the world. 

The Inter-Parliamentary Union, founded in 
I8885 meets every year. The Declaration of 
London will supply the International Prize 
Court, established at the Second Hague Con- 
ference, with a recognised code. The exemp- 
tion of private property from capture at sea 
must be secured. But the best hope of 
peace lies in the gradual triumph of reason 
over the suspicions, ignorance, and greed from 
which wars arise. The vested interests which 
thrive on armaments, the Yellow Press which 
lives by sensation, the nervous patriot who 
dreams of invasion, the soldier who glorifies 
the bracing influence of war, are formidable 
but not insuperable obstacles to the reign 
of law. It is the merit of Randal Cremer 
and Hodgson Pratt, of Baroness Siittner and 
Frederic Passy, of Edwin Mead and Andrew 
Carnegie, to have realised that peace needs 
its propaganda like any other good cause. 
It is the achievement of Bloch and Norman 
Angell to have shown that even a successful 
conflict between modern States can bring no 
material gain. We can now look forward 



WORLD PROBLEMS 249 

with something Hke confidence to the time 
when war between civilised nations will be 
considered as antiquated as the duel, and 
when the peacemakers shall be called the 
children of God. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



GENERAL. — The Cambridge Modern History, vol. xii. ; 
Rose, The Development of the European Nations, 1870-1900 ; 
Hazen, Europe Since 1815; The Annual Register; The 
Statesman's Year-Booh. 

CHAPTER I. —Narratives.— Bright, History of 
England, 1880-1901 ; M'Carthy, History of Our Own Times, 
1880-1901 (4 vols.) J Herbert Paul, History of Modern 
England, vol. v., 1885-1895. Biographies.— Morley, 
Gladstone ; Winston Churchill, Randolph Churchill ; 
Elliot, Goschen. Ireland. — Barry O'Brien, Life of 
Parnell ; W. O'Brien, An Olive Branch in Ireland ; Paul- 
Dubois, Contemporary Ireland. The Empire. — Hawke, 
The British Empire ; Lucas, Historical Geography of the 
British Colonies ; Jebb, Studies in Colonial Nationalism, 
and The Colonial Conference ; Hobson, Imperialism. 

CHAPTER II.— Bodley, France, and The Church in 
France ; Coubertin, The Evolution of the Third Republic ; 
Lawton, The Third French Republic ; Bracq, France under 
the Republic ; Conybeare, The Dreyfus Case. 

CHAPTER III.— Italy.— King and Okey, Italy To-day, 
ed. of 1909; Stillman, The Union of Italy, 1816-1895, 
and Life of Crispi; Lowell, Governments and Parties in 
Continental Europe. Spain and Portugal. — Whyte, A 
Century of Spain and Portugal; Martin Hume, Modern 
Spain ; Morse Stephens, Portugal (with additional chapter 
by M. Hume). Archer, The Life of Ferrer, and Shaw, 
Spain from Within, discuss the influence of the Church. 
251 



252 HISTORY OF OUR TIME 

Wilson, The Downfall of Spain, describes the American 
War. 

CHAPTER IV.— Geemany.— Dawson, The Evolution 
of Modern Oermany. Lowell, Governments and Parties, 
and B. Howard, The German Empire, describe the Con- 
stitution at work. Headlam, Bismarck, and Lowe, 
William II, are useful for the earlier years. The German 
Emperor's Speeches. Austria-Hungary. — Drage, 
Austria-Hungary ; Lowell, Governments and Parties ; 
Seton Watson, Racial Problems in Hungary, Hungary 
To-Day, ed. Alden, gives the official Magyar version. 

CHAPTER Y .—RvssiA.—LowQ, Alexander III; Pares, 
Russia and Reform-, Wallace, Russia, ed. of 1905; Milyou- 
kov, Russia and its Crisis ; Nevinson, The Dawn in Russia ; 
Kropotkin, The Terror in Russia ; Renwick, Finland 
To-day. The Near East.— Sir C. Eliot, Turkey in 
Europe ; The Balkan Question, ed. Villari, and Brailsford, 
Macedonia, describe the rule of Abdul Hamid. Buxton, 
Turkey in Revolution, and Abbott, Turkey in Transition, 
discuss the Young Turk regime. For Armenia, Bryce, 
Trans-Caucasia arid Ararat, ed. 1896. Miller, The Balkans, 
and Greek Life in Toion and Country ; Beaman, Stamhuloff. 

CHAPTER VI.— Bismarck's Reflections; Rose, The 
Development of the European Nations ; Dilke, The Present 
Position of European Politics (1887) ; Benedetti, Essays 
in Diplomacy. For fuller study, Tardieu, La France et 
ses Alliances; and Lemonon, UEurope et la Politique 
Britannique. 

CHAPTER VII.— General. — Townshend, Asia and 
Europe ; Lyall, Asiatic Studies. The Far Bast.— Uyehara, 
The Political Development of Japan ; Fifty Years of New 
Japan, ed. Okuma ; Lafcadio Hearn, Japan, an Attempt 
at Interpretation; Bland and Backhouse, China under 
the Empress Dowager ; W. Cecil, Changing China. India. — 
The Indian Empire, 4 vols. (Imperial Gazetteer of India) ; 
Lord Curzon in India. Morley, Indian Speeches ; Cotton, 
New India ; Nevinson, The New Spirit in India, and 
Chirol, Indian Unrest, describe the new nationalism. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 253 

Yoimghusband, India and Tibet, and Hamilton, Afghani- 
Stan, discuss frontier problems. Persia. — Browne, The 
Persian Revolution ; Chirol, The Middle Eastern Question. 

CHAPTER VIII.— Genebal.— Johnston, The Opening- 
up of Africa. Egypt. — Lord Cromer, Modern Egypt ; 
Colvin, The Making of Modern Egypt ; Rothstein, Egypt's 
Ruin (anti-occupation). Central Africa. — Mockler- 
Ferryman, British Nigeria ; Stanley, Autobiography ; 
Morel, Red Rubber ; Hamilton, Somaliland ; Eliot, The 
East African Protectorate; Johnston, Uganda. South 
Africa. — ^Theal, Story of South Africa; MicheU, Life of 
Rhodes ; Hobson, The War in South Africa ; Cook, The 
Rights and Wrongs of the Transvaal War ; The Times History 
of the War in South Africa ; De Wet, Three Years' War ; 
Brand, The Union of South Africa. 

CHAPTER IX.— The United States.— T^e Cambridge 
Modern History, vol. vii. ; Bryce, The American Common^ 
wealth, ed. 1911 ; Coolidge, The United States as a World 
Power ; Taussig, Tariff History of the United States, ed. 1910 ; 
Whipple, Cleveland. Canada. — Bourinot, Canada, 1760- 
1900 ; AjgyU, Yesterday and To-day in Canada. La.tin 
America. — Akers, History of South America, 1854-1904 ; 
Fisher Unwin's South American Series, Mexico, Brazil, 
Argentina, Peru, Chile, Uruguay ; Turner, Barbarous 
Mexico (anti-Diaz) ; Portez, The Ten Republics. 

CHAPTER X. — Reeves, State Experiments in Australia 
and' New Zealand ; Sombart, Socialism and, the Social 
Movement ; Lilley, Modernism ; Abbott, Israel in Europe ; 
Inter-Racial Problems, ed. Spiller ; Booker Washington, 
Up from Slavery ; Howard Evans, Sir Randal Cremer ; 
Hall, The Tivo Hague Conferences, 



INDEX 



Abyssinia, 60-2 
Afghanistan, 149, 166, 168 
Africa, South, 20-2, 196-205 
Anti-Semitism, 42-4. 241-2 
Arbitration, 149,213-15,229, 

246-8 
Armaments, 245-6. 
Armenia, 92, 124-5 
Australia, 19, 233, 238 

Bagdad railway. 93, 145, 

154 
Bonapartism, 56-7 
Bosnia and Herzegovina, 107- 

8, 151 
British East Africa, 195-6 
Bulgaria, 121-3, 127, 151 
Burma, 166-7 

Catholicism, 32, 41-2, 47-52, 
65, 67, 73-4, 101-135, 
239-40 

China, 157-65, 173 

Chinese Labour, 203-4, 207 

Congo, the, 187-92 

Crete, 125-7, 130 

Cuba, 68-70, 216-9 

Drago Doctrine, 230 
Dual Alliance, 137-9 



Egypt, 140-1, 181-6 

Finland, 118-9 

Greece, 125-7, 130-1 

Hague Conferences and Tri- 
bunal, 149, 246-7 
Hawaii, 212 

Ireland, 7-16, 23-4, 26, 30 

Japan, 150, 155-65, 221-2 

Korea. 157, 161-4 

Macedonia, 121, 127-30 
Madagascar, 140, 145, 188 
Modernism, 239-40 
Monroe Doctrine, 212-4, 

230-1 
Montenegro, 131, 151 
Morocco, 71-3, 144-9. 154, 

186 

Native races, 243-5 
New Zealand, 233, 288 
Nigeria, 194-5 

Opium, 165, 244 



256 



HISTORY OF OUR TIME 



Panama Canal, 39-40, 221 
Persia, 149-50, 176-9 
Philippines, 70, 217-9 
Poland, 96-8, 119-20 
Proportional Representation, 

233 
Prussia, 95-8 

Referendum, the, 233 
Roumania, 131 

Servia, 121-4, 157-2 
Siam, 140 
Siberia, 110, 158 
Socialism, 28, 52-5, 90-1, 
117,235-8 



Somaliland, 196 
Syndicalism, 54. 237 

Tibet, 149, 173 
Triple Alliance, 134-5 
Triple Entente, 144-50 
Tripoli, 143 

Turkey, 92-3, 121, 124^30, 
151-3 

Uganda, 195-6 

Women's franchise, 233-5 

Zionism, 242-3 



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